LATIN AMERICA AND THE 
UNITED STATES 



ADDRESSES 

BY 

ELIHU ROOT 



COLLECTED AND EDITED BY 

ROBERT BACON 

AND 

JA^IES BROWTM SCOTT 




CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 
OxroBD University Pbkss 

1917 



n^i^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1917 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 



#•>? 



22 1917 



©GIA4G7544 
7^ / 



ii 



>i3' 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introductory Note ix 

Foreword xiii 

SPEECHES m BRAZIL 

Rio de Janeiro 

At the Third Conference of the American Republics: 

— His Excellency Joaquim Nabuco, President of the Conference 3 

— -Mr. Root, Honorary President 6 

- Mr. Mariano Cornejo, Delegate from Peru 11 

— Honorable A. J. Montague, Delegate from the United States . 13 

— His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco, Honorary President . 13 
At the Banquet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs: 

His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco 14 

Mr. Root 15 

Dr. James Darcy 16 

Mr. Root 17 

In the Federal Senate: 

^Senator Ruy Barbosa 19 

^""Senator Alfredo Ellis 28 

In the Chamber of Deputies: 

'-Dr. Paula Guimaraes 30 

^ Mr. Root 31 

Sao Paulo 

At a Mass-Meeting of Law School Students: 

— Mr. Theodomiro de Camargo 35 

^Mr. Galaor Nazareth de Arujo 36 

Mr. Gama, Jr 36 

^Mr. Root 38 

At a Football Game: 

Mr. Root 40 

Santos 

At the Commercial Association: 

Dr. Rezende 41 

Mr. Root 42 



iv CONTENTS 

At a Breakfast given by the Governor: 

his excelx£ncy augusto monteneoro 45 

Mr. Root 45 

Perxamduco 

At a Breakfast given by the Governor: 
Summary of Speech of His Excellency Sigismundo Gon^alvez 47 
Mr. Root 47 

Bahia 

At a Banquet given by the Governor: 

His Excellency Jos£ Marceuno de Souza 48 

Mr. Root 50 

Senator Ruy Barbosa 52 

SPEECHES IN URUGUAY 

Montevideo 

At a Banquet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs: 

His Excellency Jos6 Romeu 55 

Mr. Root 58 

At a Banquet given by the President of Uruguay: 

His Excellency Josfi Batlle y OrdoSez 60 

Mr. Root 63 

At a Breakfast by the Reception Committee: 

Dr. Zorrilla de San M.uitin 65 

Mr. Root 69 

SPEECHES IN ARGENTINA 

Buenos Ayres 

In the Chamber of Deputies: 
Honorable Emilio Mitre 73 

At a Banquet given by the President of Argentina: 

His Excellency J. Figueroa Alcorta 81 

Mr. Root 84 

At a Reception by American and English Residents: 

Mr. Francis B. Purdie 80 

Mr. Root 90 

At a Banquet at the Opera House: 

Dr. Luis M. Drago 93 

Mr. Root 97 

:^ SPEECHES IN CHILE 
Santiago 

At the Government House : 

His Excellency Jerman Riesco 103 

Mr. Root 103 



CONTENTS V 

At a Banquet given by the President of Chile: 

His Excellency Antonio Huneeus 104 

Mr. Boot 109 

SPEECHES IN PERU 
Lima 

At a Banquet given by the President of Peru : 

His Excellency Josfi Pabdo y Babkeda 113 

Mr. Root 114 

Banquet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs : 

His Excellency Javier Pbado y Ugarteche IIC 

Mr. Root 123 

Reception at the Municipal Council: 

Dr. Federico Elguera 127 

Mr. Root 129 

At an Extraordinary Session of the Senate: 

Senator Barrios 130 

Mr. Root 132 

University of San Marcos : 

Dr. Luis F. Villaran 133 

Dr. Ramon Ribeyro 136 

Mr. Root 140 

SPEECHES IN PANAMA 
Panama 

In the National Assembly: 

His Excellency Ricardo Arias 145 

Mr. Root 148 

SPEECHES IN COLOMBIA 

Cartagena 

At a Breakfast by the Minister for Foreign Affairs : 

His Excellency Vasquez-Cobo 153 

Mr. Root 154 

THE VISIT TO MEXICO 

San Antonio, Texas 

At a Banquet by the International Club: 
Mr. Root 159 

NuEvo Laredo 

General Pedro Rinc6n Gallardo 161 

Mr. Root 162 

City of Mexico 

At a Banquet at the National Palace: 

President Diaz 102 

Mr. Root 164 



vi CONTENTS 

At a Reception at the Municipal Palace: 

Governor Guillermo de Landa y Escand6n 165 

Mr. Root 1G7 

Reception by the Chamber of Deputies: 

Licentiate Manuel Calero 1G8 

Mr. Root 17i 

Luncheon by tlie American Colony: 

General C. H. M. y Agramonte 177 

Ma. Root 179 

Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence : 

Licentiate Luis Mend^z 181 

Licentiate Joaquin D. Casasus 184 

Mr. Root 188 

Banquet of the American Ambassador : 

Ambassador Thompson 192 

Vice-President Corral 192 

Mr. Root 193 

LicENCiADO Don 3 oat Ives Limantour 195 

Banquet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs : 

Licentiate Ignacio Mariscal ?98 

Mr. Root 199 

Farewell Supper given by Mr. Root: 

Mr. Root 202 

Vice-President Corral 203 

PUEBLA 

At the Governor's Banquet at the Municipal Palace: 

General Mucio P. IVL\.RTiNEZ 204 

Mr. Root 205 

Orizaba 

Luncheon at the Cocolopan Factory: 

Governor D. Teodoro A. Dehesa 206 

Mr. Root 206 

Guadalajara 

Governor Ahumada 208 

Mr. Root 209 

ADDRESSES IN THE UNITED STATES ON LATIN 
AMERICAN RELATIONS 

The Central American Peace Conference. 218 

Opening Address, Washington, D, C, December 13, 1907. . . . 214 
Closing Address, Washington, December 20, 1907 217 



CONTENTS vii 

The Pan American Cause 219 

Response to the Toast of the Ambassador of Brazil at a dinner in 
honor of the Rear-Admiral and Captains of visiting Brazilian 
ships, Washington, D. C, May 18, 1907 

The Pan American Union 223 

Address at the laying of the corner stone of the building for the 

Pan American Union, Washington, D. C, May 11, 1908 . . , 228 
Address at the dedication of the building, Washington, D. C, 

April 26, 1910 231 

Our Sister Republic — Argentina 235 

Address at a Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce, New York, 
April 28, 1893 

Our Sister Republic — Brazil 239 

Address at a Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce, New York, 
June 18, 1913 

How to Develop South American Commerce 245 

Address before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, 
Kansas City, Missouri, November 20, 1906 

South American Commerce 269 

Address at the National Convention for the Extension of the 
Foreign Commerce of the United States, Washington, D. C, 
January 14, 1907 

Individual Effort in Trade Expantion 283 

Address at the Pan American Commercial Conference, Wash- 
ington, D. C, February 17, 1911 

The Second Pan American Scientific Congress 291 

Address of Welcome, Washington, D. C, December 30, 1915 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

The collected addresses and state papers of Elihu Root, of 
which this is one of several volumes, cover the period of his 
service as Secretary of War, as Secretary of State, and as 
Senator of the United States, during which time, to use his 
own expression, his only client was his country. 

The many formal and occasional addresses and speeches, 
which will be found to be of a remarkably wide range, are 
followed by his state papers, such as the instructions to 
the American delegates to the Second Hague Peace Confer- 
ence and other diplomatic notes and documents, prepared 
by him as Secretary of State in the performance of his duties 
as an executive officer of the United States. Although the 
official documents have been kept separate from the other 
papers, this plan has been slightly modffied in the volume 
devoted to the military and colonial policy of the United 
States, which includes those portions of his official reports as 
Secretary of War throwing light upon his public addresses and 
his general military policy. 

The addresses and speeches selected for publication are 
not arranged chronologically, but are classified in such a way 
that each volume contains addresses and speeches relating 
to a general subject and a common purpose. The addresses 
as president of the American Society of International Law 
show his treatment of international questions from the 
theoretical standpoint, and in the light of his experience as 
Secretary of War and as Secretary of State, unrestrained and 
uncontrolled by the limitations of official position, whereas 
his addresses on foreign affairs, delivered while Secretary of 
State or as United States Senator, discuss these questions 
under the reserve of official responsibility. 



X INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

Mr. Root's addresses on government, citizenship, and 
legal procedure are a masterly exposition of the principles 
of the Constitution and of the government established by 
it; of the duty of the citizen to understand the Constitu- 
tion and to conform his conduct to its requirements; and 
of the right of the people to reform or to amend the Con- 
stitution in order to make representative government more 
eflFective and responsive to their present and future needs. 
The addresses on law and its administration state how legal 
procedure should be modified and simplified in the interest 
of justice rather than in the supposed interest of the legal 
profession. 

The addresses delivered during the trip to South America 
and Mexico in 1906, and in the United States after his return, 
with their message of good will, proclaim a new doctrine — 
the Root doctrine — of kindly consideration and of honorable 
obligation, and make clear the destiny common to the 
peoples of the Western World. 

The addresses and the reports on military and colonial 
policy made by ISIr. Root as Secretary of War explain the 
reorganization of the army after the Spanish-American War, 
the creation of the General Staff, and the establishment of the 
Army War College. They trace the origin of and give the 
reason for the policy of this country in Cuba, the Philippines, 
and Porto Rico, devised and inaugurated by him. It is not 
generally known that the so-called Piatt Amendment, 
defining our relations to Cuba, was drafted by Mr. Root, and 
that the Organic Act of the Philippines was likewise the work 
of Mr. Root as Secretary of War. 

The argument before The Hague Tribunal in the North 
Atlantic Fisheries Case is a rare if not the only instance of a 
statesman appearing as chief counsel in an international 
arbitration, which, as Secretary of State, he had prepared 
and submitted. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE xi 

The political, educational, historical, and conmiemorative 
speeches and addresses should make known to future genera- 
tions the literary, artistic, and emotional side of a statesman 
of our time, and the publication of these collected addresses 
and state papers will, it is beheved, enable the American 
people better to understand the generation in which Mr. Root 
has been a commanding figure and better to appreciate 
during his lifetime the services which he has rendered to 
his country. 

Robert Bacon. 

James Brown Scott. 
April 15, 1916. 



4 



FOREWORD 

The visit of the Secretary of State to South America in 1906 was not a 
summer outing. It was not an ordinary event; it was and it was intended 1 
to be a matter of international importance. It was the iSrst time that a 
Secretary of State had visited South America during the tenure of his 
office, and the visit was designed to show the importance which the United 
States attaches to the Pan American conferences, and by personal contact . 
to learn the aims and views of our southern friends, and to show also, by | 
personal intercourse, the kindly consideration and the sense of honorable 
obligation which the Government of the United States cherishes for its 
neighbors to the south without discriminating among them, and to makey 
clear the destiny common to the peoples of the western world. These were 
the reasons which prompted Mr. Root to undertake this message of good 
will and of frank explanation, and these were also the reasons which 
caused the President of the United States in his message to Congress to 
dwell upon the visit, its incidents and its consequences. Thus President 
Roosevelt said in his message of December 3, 1906: 

The Second International Conference of American Republics, held 
in Mexico in the years 1901-02, provided for the holding of the third 
conference within five years, and committed the fixing of the time 
and place and the arrangements for the conference to the governing 
board of the Bureau of American Republics, composed of the repre- 
sentatives of all the American nations in Washington. That board 
discharged the duty imposed upon it with marked fidelity and pains- 
taking care, and upon the courteous invitation of the United States 
of Brazil, the conference was held at Rio de Janeiro, continuing from 
the twenty-third of July to the twenty-ninth of August last. Many 
subjects of common interest to all the American nations were discussed 
by the conference, and the conclusions reached, embodied in a series 
^ of resolutions and proposed conventions, will be laid before you upon 
\ the coming-in of the final report of the American delegates. They 
J contain many matters of importance relating to the extension of 
/ trade, the increase of communication, the smoothing away of barriers 
to free intercourse, and the promotion of a better knowledge and good 
understanding between the dififerent countries represented. The 
meetings of the conference were harmonious and the conclusions were 
reached with substantial unanimity. It is interesting to observe that 



xiv FOREWORD 

in the successive conferences which have been held the representatives 
of the different American nations Ixave been learning to work together 
effectively, for, while the First Conference in Washington in 1889, 
and the Second Conference in Mexico in 1901-0'i, occupied many 
montlis, with nuich time wa^ited iu an unregulated and fruitless dis- 
cussion, the Third Conference at Ilio exhibited much of the facility 
in the practical dispatch of business which characterizes p)ermanent 
deliberative bodies, and completed its labors within the jieriod of six 
\^ weeks originally allotted for its sessions. 

Quite apart from the specific value of the conclusions reached by 
the conference, the example of the representatives of all the American 
nations engaging in harmonious and kindly consideration and dis- 
cussion of subjects of common interest is itself of great and substantial 
value for the promotion of reasonable and considerate treatment of all 
international questions. The thanks of this country are due to the 
Government of Brazil and to the people of Rio de Janeiro for the gener- 
ous hospitality with which our delegates, in common with the others, 
were received, entertained, and facilitated in their work. 

Incidentally to the meeting of the conference, the Secretary of 
State visited the city of Rio de Janeiro and was cordially received 
by the conference, of which he was made an honorary president. 
The announcement of his intention to make this visit was followed 
by most courteous and urgent invitations from nearly all the countries 
of South America to visit them as the guest of their Governments. 
It was deemed that by the acceptance of these invitations we might 
appropriately express the real respect and friendship in which we 
hold our sister republics of the southern continent, and the Secretary, 
accordingly, visited Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, 
and Colombia. He refrained from visiting Paraguay, Bohvia, and 
Ecuador only because the distance of their capitals from the seaboard 
made it impracticable with the time at his disposal. He carried with 
him a message of peace and friendship, and of strong desire for good 
understanding and mutual helpfulness; and he was everywhere 
received in the spirit of his message. The members of government, 
the press, the learned professions, the men of business, and the great 
masses of the people united everywhere in emphatic response to his 
friendly expressions and in doing honor to the country and cause which 
he represented. 

In many parts of South America there has been much misunder- 
standing of the attitude and purposes of the United States toward 
the other American republics. An idea had become prevalent that 
our assertion of the Monroe Doctrine implied, or carried with it, an 
assumption of superiority, and of a right to exercise some kind of 



FOREWORD 



XV 



protectorate over the countries to whose territory that doctrine 
applies. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yet that im- 
pression continued to be a serious barrier to good understanding, to 
friendly intercourse, to the introduction of American capital and 
the extension of American trade. The impression was so widespread 
that apparently it could not be reached by any ordinary means. 

It was part of Secretary Root's mission to dispel this unfounded 
impression, and there is just cause to believe that he has succeeded. 
In an address to the Third Conference at Rio on the thirty-first of 
July — an address of such note that I send it in, together with this 
message — he said : 

We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except 
our own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. 
We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and 
weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect 
as those of the greatest empire, and we deem the observance of that 
respect the chief guaranty of the weak against the oppression of the 
strong. We neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers 
that we do not freely concede to every American republic. 

These words appear to have been received with acclaim in every 
part of South America. They have my hearty approval, as I am sure 
they will have yours, and I cannot be wrong in the conviction that 
they correctly represent the sentiments of the whole American people. 
I cannot better characterize the true attitude of the United States 
in its assertion of the Monroe Doctrine than in the words of the 
distinguished former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Doctor 
Drago, in his speech welcoming Mr. Root at Buenos Ayres. He 
spoke of — 

the traditional policy of the United States, which, without accen- 
tuating superiority or seeking prep>onderance, condemned the oppres- 
sion of the nations of this part of the world and the control of their 
destinies by the Great Powers of Europe. 

It is gratifying to know that in the great city of Buenos Ayres, 
upon the arches which spanned the streets, entwined with Argentine 
and American flags for the reception of our representative, tliere were 
emblazoned not only the names of Washington and Jefferson and 
Marshall, but also, in appreciative recognition of their services to the 
cause of South American independence, the names of James Monroe, 
John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Richard Rush. We take 
especial pleasure in the graceful courtesy of the Government of Brazil, 
which has given to the beautiful and stately building first used for 
the meeting of the conference the name of " Palacio Monroe." Our 
grateful acknowledgments are due to the Governments and the 
people of all the countries visited by the Secretary of State, for the 



^^, 
^ 



xvi FOREWORD 

courtesy, the friendship, and the honor shown to our country in their 

generous hospitality to him. 
In view of the statements made by Mr. Root himself in his various 
addresses, and in view of President Roosevelt's statement of them, and of 
the results of the visit, it does not seem necessary further to detain the 
reader. It is, however, proper to call attention to the fact that, in addition 
to the speeches delivered by Mr. Root in South America, which were pub- 
lished by the Government of the United States in an oflBcial volume, the 
reader will find Mr. Root's addresses during a visit to Mexico which he 
made in 190G, upon his return from South America; Mr. Root's addresses 
before the Central American Peace Conference, which met in Wasliington 
in the fall of 1907; and the various addresses which Mr. Root made in the 
United States in his oflScial and unofficial capacity, explaining to his coun- 
trymen the aims and aspirations of the American peoples to the south of 
our own Republic, the progress they have made since their emancipation 
from European tutelage, and the futiu-e before them which, like ripening 
fruits, they need only stretch forth the hand to pluck. The undiscovered 
land — for to many of us it is unknown — is a land of exquisite beauty, 
grace and courtesy, which the reader may here visit, if he choose, in com- 
pany with Mr. Root. 



Mr. Root's addresses on his South American trip were all in English. 
The addresses of welcome and congratulation were in the language of the 
country in which they were delivered. They appear in translated form in 
the present volume, and attention is called to the fact that they are trans- 
lations, in order to relieve the speakers of responsibility for any infelicities 
of expression in their English form. 






LATIN AMERICA AND THE 
UNITED STATES 



BRAZIL 

THE THIED CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS 
RIO DE JANEIRO, JULY 31, 1906 

As Secretary of State Mr. Root was ex-officio chairman of the Governing Board 
of the Bureau of American RepubUcs, now called the Pan American Union. As 
chairman, he took a very great interest in considering and arranging the program 
of the third conference which was to meet in Rio de Janeiro on July 23, 1906. 
Indeed, he was so deeply interested in the conference of the American republics 
upon the eve of the meeting of the Second Hague Peace Conference, that he decided 
to visit Rio de Janeiro during the meeting of the conference. The American repub- 
lics welcomed this decision as soon as it was made known and urged him to visit 
them, and it was with great regret that Mr. Root found himself unable to visit all of 
the republics. He was made honorary president of the conference and in that 
capacity delivered the following address. 

It is proper to state, in this connection, that all the American republics were 
invited to attend and to participate in the Second Hague Peace Conference and that 
the Conference was set for 1906. Mr. Root was unwilling that either conference 
should interfere with the other, and through his intervention with the European 
Powers the Second Hague Peace Conference was postponed to the summer of 1907, 
in order not to interfere with the Pan American Conference held at Rio de Janeiro 
in the summer of 1906, and the participation of the American republics in that 
conference. Only three American republics were invited to the First Hague Peace 
Conference, namely, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Through the efforts of 
the United States, and particularly through Mr. Root's efforts as Secretary of State, 
all of the American republics were invited to the Second Hague Peace Conference. 

The noble passage in Mr. Root's address as honorary president of the conference, 
proclaiming the equality of American states, and quoted by President Roosevelt in 
his message to Congress, reproduced in the preface to this volume, was constantly 
referred to by Latin American delegates in the Hague Peace Conference, and was 
quoted by Mr. Ruy Barbosa, the Brazilian delegate, who added, " These words 
reverberated through the length and the breadth of our continent, as the American 
evangel of peace and of justice." ^ 

Speech of His Excellency Joaquim Nabuco 

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from the United SxATia 

OF Brazil to the United States op America, President op 

the Conference 

YOU do not come here tonight as a stranger to take your 
place as an honorary president of this conference. You 
were the first to express a desire that the conference should 
meet this year; it was you who, in Washington, brought to a 

* Deuxiime ConfSrence de la Paix, Vol. II, p. 644. 
s 



4 LATIN AMERICA AND THE IGNITED STATES 

happy conclusion the difficult elaboration of its program and 
of its rules. Neither can we forget that at one time you 
expected to be one of us, a plan you abandoned in order that 
you might divide your time among all the republics that 
claimed the honor of your visit. The meeting of this con- 
ference is thus to a great extent your own work. In nothing 
else since you came to your high post have you taken a more 
direct and personal interest. You seem to divine in the spirit 
that animates you with regard to our continent the mark that 
your name will leave in historj'. 

I believe that you and the conference understand each 
other fully. The periodical meeting of this body, exclusively 
composed of American nations, assuredly means that 
America forms a political system separate from that of 
Europe — a constellation with its own distinct orbit. 

By aiming, however, at a common civilization and by 
trying to make of the space we occupy on the globe a vast 
neutral zone of peace, we are working for the benefit of the 
whole world. In this way we offer to the population, to the 
wealth, and to the genius of Europe a much wider and safer 
field of action in our hemisphere than if we formed a dis- 
united continent, or if we belonged to the belligerent camps 
into which the Old World may become divided. One point 
specially will be of great interest for you, who so heartily 
desire the success of this work. The conference is convinced 
that its mission is not to force any nation belonging to it to 
do anything she would not be freely prepared to do upon her 
own initiative; we all recognize that its sole function is to 
impart our collective sanction to what has already become 
unanimous in the opinion of the whole continent. 

This is the first time, sir, that an American Secretary of 
State officially visits a foreign nation, and we all feel happy 
that the first visit was to Latin America. You will find 
everj'where the same admiration for your great country, 



BRAZIL 5 

whose influence in the advance of moral culture, of political 
liberty, and of international law has begun already to coun- 
terbalance that of the rest of the world. Mingled with that 
admiration you will also find the sentiment that you could 
not rise without raising with you our whole continent; that 
in everything you achieve we shall have our share of 
progress. 

There are few rolls of honor so brilliant in history as that 
of men who have occupied your high position. Among them 
any distinction on the ground of their merits would be fated 
to be unjust; a few names, however, that shine more vividly 
in history, such as those of Jefferson, Monroe, Webster, Clay, 
Seward, and Blaine — the latter the creator of these con- 
ferences — suffice to show abroad that the United States 
have always been as proud of the perfection of the mould in 
which their Secretaries of State have been cast and as zealous 
in this respect as they have been in the case of their Presi- 
dents. We fully appreciate the luster added to this con- 
ference by the part you take in it tonight. It is with sincere 
gratification that we welcome you. Here, you may be sure, 
you are surrounded by the respect of our whole continent for 
your great nation; for President Roosevelt, who has shown 
himself during his term of office, and will ever remain, what- 
ever position he may choose to occupy in public life, one of 
the leaders of mankind; and for yourself, whose sound 
sense of justice and whose sincere interest in the welfare of 
all American nations reflect the noblest inspiration that 
animated the greatest of your predecessors. 

This voyage of yours demonstrates practically to the whole 
world your good faith as a statesman and your broad sym- 
pathy as an American; it shows the conscientiousness and 
the care with which you wish to place before the President 
and the country the fundamental points of your national 
external policy. 



6 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

You are now exploring political seas never navigated 
before, lands not yet revealed to the genius of j'our statesmen 
and toward which they were attracted, as we are all attracted 
one to another, by an irresistible continental gravitation. We 
feel certain, however, that at the end of your long journey 
you will feel that, in their ideals and in their hearts, the 
American republics form already a great political unit in 
the world. 

Speech of the Secretary op State 
HoNOBABT President op the Conference 

T BEG you to believe that I highly appreciate and thank you 
for the honor you do me. 

I bring from my country a special greeting to her elder 
sisters in the civilization of America. 

Unlike as we are in many respects, we are alike in this, that 
we are all engaged under new conditions, and free from the 
traditional forms and limitations of the Old World in working 
out the same problem of popular self-government. 

It is a difficult and laborious task for each of us. Not in 
one generation nor in one century can the effective control of 
a superior sovereign, so long deemed necessary to govern- 
ment, be rejected, and effective self-control by the governed 
be perfected in its place. The first fruits of democracy are 
many of them crude and unlovely; its mistakes are many, 
its partial failures many, its sins not few. Capacity for self- 
government does not come to man by nature. It is an art to 
be learned, and it is also an expression of character to be 
developed among all the thousands of men who exercise 
popular sovereignty. 

To reach the goal toward which we are pressing forward, 
the governing multitude must first acquire knowledge that 
comes from universal education; wisdom that follows prac- 
tical experience; personal independence and self-respect 



BRAZIL 7 

befitting men who aelaiowledge no superior; self-control to 
replace that external control which a democracy rejects; 
respect for law; obedience to the lawful expressions of the 
public will; consideration for the opinions and interests of 
others equally entitled to a voice in the state; loyalty to 
that abstract conception — one's country — as inspiring 
as that loyalty to personal sovereigns which has so illumined 
the pages of history; subordination of personal interests 
to the public good; love of justice and mercy, of liberty and 
order. All these we must seek by slow and patient effort; 
and of how many shortcomings in his own land and among 
his own people each one of us is conscious! 

Yet no student of our times can fail to see that not America 
alone but the whole civilized world is swinging away from its 
old governmental moorings and intrusting the fate of its 
civilization to the capacity of the popular mass to govern. 
By this pathway mankind is to travel, whithersoever it leads. 
Upon the success of this our great undertaking the hope of 
humanity depends. 

Nor can we fail to see that the world makes substantial 
progress toward more perfect popular self-government. 

I beheve it to be true that, viewed against the background 
of conditions a century, a generation, a decade ago, govern- 
ment in my own country has advanced, in the intelligent 
participation of the great mass of the people, in the fidelity 
and honesty with which they are represented, in respect for 
law, in obedience to the dictates of a sound morality, and in 
effectiveness and purity of administration. 

Nowhere in the world has this progress been more marked 
than in Latin America. Out of the wrack of Indian fighting 
and race conflicts and civil wars, strong and stable govern- 
ments have arisen. Peaceful succession in accord with the 
people's will has replaced the forcible seizure of power per- 
mitted by the people's indifference. Loyalty to country, its 



8 L\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

peace, its {li<niity, its honor, has risen above partisanship for 
individual leaders. The rule of law supersedes the rule of 
man. Property is protected and the fruits of enterprise are 
secure. Individual liberty is respected. Continuous public 
policies are followed; national faith is held sacred. Progress 
lias not been equal everywhere, but there has been progress 
e\'ery where. The movement in the right direction is general. 
The right tendency is not exceptional; it is continental. The 
present affords just cause for satisfaction; the future is 
bright with hope. 

It is not by national isolation that these results have been 
accomplished, or that this progress can be continued. No 
nation can live unto itself alone and continue to live. Each 
nation's growth is a part of the development of the race. 
There may be leaders and there may be laggards; but no 
nation can long continue very far in advance of the general 
progress of mankind, and no nation that is not doomed to 
extinction can remain very far behind. It is with nations as 
it is with individual men; intercourse, association, correction 
of egotism by the influence of others' judgment; broadening 
of views by the experience and thought of equals; accept- 
ance of the moral standards of a community, the desire for 
whose good opinion lends a sanction to the rules of right 
conduct — these are the conditions of growth in civilization. 
A people whose minds are not open to the lessons of the 
world's progress, whose spirits are not stirred by the aspira- 
tions and the achievements of humanity struggling the 
world over for liberty and justice, must be left behind by 
civilization in its steady and beneficent advance. 

To promote this mutual interchange and assistance be- 
tween the American republics, engaged in the same great 
task, inspired by the same purpose, and professing the same 
principles, I understand to be the function of the American 
Conference now in session. There is not one of all our coun- 



BRAZIL 9 

tries that cannot benefit the others; there is not one that can- 
not receive benefit from the others; there is not one that will 
not gain by the prosperity, the peace, the happiness of all. 

According to your program, no great and impressive 
single thing is to be done by you; no political questions are 
to be discussed; no controversies are to be settled; no judg- 
ment is to be passed upon the conduct of any state, but 
many subjects are to be considered which afford the possi- 
bility of removing barriers to intercourse; of ascertaining for 
the common benefit what advances have been made by each 
nation in knowledge, in experience, in enterprise, in the solu- 
tion of diflScult questions of government, and in ethical stand- 
ards; of perfecting our knowledge of each other; and of 
doing away with the misconceptions, the misunderstandings, 
and the resultant prejudices that are such fruitful sources of 
controversy. 

And some subjects in the program invite discussion that 
may lead the American republics toward an agreement 
upon principles, the general practical application of which 
can come only in the future through long and patient effort. 
Some advances at least may be made here toward the com- 
plete rule of justice and peace among nations, in lieu of force 
and war. 

The association of so many eminent men from all the 
republics, leaders of opinion in their own homes; the friend- 
ships that will arise among you; the habit of temperate and 
kindly discussion of matters of common interest; the ascer- 
tainment of common sympathies and aims; the dissipation 
of misunderstandings; the exhibition to all the American 
peoples of this peaceful and considerate method of conferring 
upon international questions — this alone, quite irrespective 
of the resolutions you may adopt and the conventions you 
may sign, will mark a substantial advance in the direction of 
international good understanding. 



10 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

These beneficent results the Government and the people of 
the United States of America greatly desire. 

We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no terri- 
tory except our own; for no sovereignty except sovereignty 
over ourselves. We deem the independence and equal rights 
of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations 
entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire; 
and we deem the obsen^ance of that respect the chief guar- 
anty of the weak against the oppression of the strong. We 
neither claim nor desire any rights or privileges or powers 
that we do not freely concede to every American republic./ 
We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our trade, te 
grow in wealth, in wisdom, and in spirit; but our conception 
of the true way to accomplish this is not to pull down others 
and profit by their ruin, but to help all friends to a common 
prosperity and a common growth, that we may all become 
greater and stronger together. 

Within a few months, for the first time, the recognized 
possessors of every foot of soil upon the American continents 
can be and I hope will be represented with the acknowledged 
rights of equal sovereign states in the great World Congress 
at The Hague. This will be the world's formal and firuil 
acceptance of the declaration that no part of the American 
continents is to be deemed subject to colonization. Let us 
pledge ourselves to aid each other in the full performance 
of the duty to humanity which that accepted declaration 
implies; so that in time the weakest and most unfortunate of 
our republics may come to march with equal step by the 
side of the stronger and more fortunate. Let us help each 
other to show that for all the races of men the liberty for 
which we have fought and labored is the twin sister of justice 
and peace. Let us unite in creating and maintaining and 
making effective an all-American public opinion, whose power 
shall influence international conduct and prevent interna- 
ls 



BRAZIL 11 

tional wrong, and narrow the causes of war, and forever pre- 
serve our free lands from the burden of such armaments as 
are massed behmd the frontiers of Europe, and bring us ever 
nearer to the perfection of ordered Hberty. So shall come 
security and prosperity, production and trade, wealth, learn- 
ing, the arts, and happiness for us all. 

Not in a single conference, nor by a single effort, can very 
much be done. You labor more for the future than for the 
present; but if the right impulse be given, if the right tend- 
ency be estabhshed, the work you do here will go on among 
all the millions of people in the American contments long 
after your final adjournment, long after your lives, with incal- 
culable benefit to all our beloved countries, which may it 
please God to contmue free and mdependent and happy for 
ages to come. 

Speech of Mr. Mariano Cornejo 

Envot Extraordinabt and Minister Plenipotentiary from the Republic 

OF Peru to the Kingdom of Spain, Former President of the 

Chamber of Deputies, Delegate from Peru 

[The President. There is before me a motion presented by the Peruvian 
delegation. 

The motion was then read: 

" The Peruvian delegation moves that the minutes of the grand session 
of today, signed by all the delegates, be presented to the Department of 
State at Washington as an expression of the great pleasure with which 
the Pan American Conference has received its honorary president, the 
Honorable Elihu Root."] 

The delegation from Peru desires that there may remain a 
mark of this solemn session, in which all America has saluted 
as a link of union the eminent statesman who has honored us 
with his presence, and, in his person, the great American 
who, for the elevation of his ideas and for the nobleness of his 
sentiments, is the worthy chief magistrate of the powerful 
republic which serves as an example, as a stimulus, and a 
center of gravitation for the political and social systems of 
America. 



12 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Honorable IVIinister, your country sheds its light over all 
the countries of the continent, which in their turn, advancing 
at different rates of velocity, but in the same direction, along 
the line of progress, form in the landscape of American his- 
torj' a beautiful perspective of the future, reaching to a 
horizon where the real and the ideal are mingled, and on 
whose blue field the great nationality that fills all the present 
stands out in bold relief. 

These congresses, gentlemen, are the symbol of that soli- 
darity which, notwithstanding the ephemeral passions of 
men, constitutes, by the invincible force of circumstances, 
the essence of our continental system. They were conceived 
by the organizing genius of the statesmen of Washington, in 
order that the American sentiment of patriotism might be 
therein exalted, freeing it from that national egotism which 
may be justified in the diflScult moments of the formation of 
states, but which would be today an impediment to the 
development of the American idea, destined to demonstrate 
that just as the democratic principle has been to combine 
liberty and order in the constitution of states, it wUl likewise 
combine the self-government of the nations and fraternity in 
the relations of the peoples. 

Honorable Minister, your visit has given impulse to this 
undertaking. The ideas you have presented have not only 
defined the interests, but have also stirred in the soul of 
America all her memories, all her dreams, and all her ideals. 

It is as if the centuries had awakened in their tombs to 
hail the dawn of a hope that fills them with new vigor and 
light. 

It is the wish of Peru that this hope may never be extin- 
guished in the heart of America, and that the illustrious 
delegates who will sign these minutes may remember that 
they are entering into a solemn engagement to strive for the 
cause of American solidarity. 



BRAZIL 13 

Speech of Honorable A. J. Montague 

FORMEB GOVEBNOK OF VIRGINIA, DELEGATE FROM THE UNITED StATES 

OP Amierica 

If in disparagement of our modesty, yet in recognition of our 
gratitude, the delegates from the United States have just 
requested me to express our profound appreciation of the 
extraordinary courtesy you have extended to our country in 
the person of her distinguished and able Secretary of State, 
whose wise and exalted address we have all heard with delight 
and satisfaction. 

However, the honors you have paid him, and which come 
so graciously from a polite and hospitable people, convey a 
deeper meaning, for in them we must see a gratifying evi- 
dence of that American solidarity which unites our republics 
in the common development of popular government, ener- 
gized by liberty, illumined by intelligence, steadied by order, 
and sustained by virtue. The liberty of law, and the oppor- 
tunity for duty, and the dignity of responsibility come to us 
by the very genius of our institutions. Therefore, in recog- 
nition of the fraternity which inspires the greatest tasks 
which have yet fallen to the lot of so many peoples, working 
together for a common end, we receive your compliment to 
our country, and for this purpose I have thus detained you to 
hear this imperfect expression of our thanks. 

Speech of His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco 

MiNISTEB FOR FOREIGN AffAIRS OP THE UnITED StATES OP BraZIL 

Honorary President of the Conference 

I HAVE risen merely to make a statement which I am sure will 
be received with pleasure by this illustrious assembly. 

His Excellency the President of the Republic, in remem- 
brance of the visit paid by His Excellency President Roose- 
velt to this building in St. Louis, and in order to perpetuate 
the memory of the coming of the distinguished Secretary 
Elihu Root to this country, has resolved by a decree bearing 



14 LVTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

today's date to give to this edifice in which the International 
Pan American Conference is now in session the name of 
Pahicio Monroe. 

[The Conference then adjourned.] 

BANQUET OF THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

Speech of His Excellency Baron do Rio Branco 

Minister for Foreign Affairs 
Rio de Janeiro, July 28, 1906 

The enthusiastic and cordial welcome you have received in 
Brazil must certainly have convinced you that this country 
is a true friend of yours. 

This friendship is of long standing. It dates from the first 
days of our independence, which the Government of the 
United States was the first to recognize, as the Government of 
Brazil was the first to applaud the terms and spirit of the 
declarations contained in the famous message of President 
Monroe. Time has but increased, in the minds and hearts of 
successive generations of Brazilians, the sympathy and 
admiration which the founders of our nationality felt for the 
United States of America. 

The manifestations of friendship for the United States 
which you have witnessed come from all the Brazilian people, 
and not from the official world alone, and it is our earnest 
desire that this friendship, which has never been disturbed in 
the past, may continue forever and grow constantly closer 
and stronger. 

Gentlemen, I drink to the health of the distinguished 
Secretary of State of the United States of America, iVIr. Elihu 
Root, who has so brilliantly and effectively aided President 
Roosevelt in the great work of the political rapjprochement of 
the American nations. 



BRAZIL 15 



Reply of Mr. Root 



I THA.NK you again and still again for the generous hospitality 
which is making my reception in Brazil so charming. 

Coming here as head of the department of foreign affairs of 
my country and seated at the table of the minister of foreign 
affairs of the great Republic of Brazil, where I am your guest, 
I am forcibly reminded of the change which, within the last/ 
few years, has taken place in the diplomacy of the world,\. 
leading to a modern diplomacy that consists of telling the \ 
truth, a result of the government of the people by the people, v 
which is in our days taking the place of personal government 
by sovereigns. It is the people who make peace or war; their 
desires, their sentiments, affections, and prejudices are the 
great and important factors which diplomacy has to consult, 
which diplomats have to interpret, and which they have to 
obey. Modern diplomacy is frank, because modem democ- 
racies hav^e no secrets; they endeavor not only to know the 
truth, but also to express it. 

And in this way I have come here as your guest; not because 
the fertile or ingenious mind of some ruler has deemed it 
judicious or convenient, but because my visit naturally rep- 
resents the friendship which the eighty million inhabitants 
of the great Republic of the North have for the twenty mil- 
Kon people of Brazil; and it is a just interpretation of that 
friendship. The depth of sentiment which in me corresponds 
to your kind reception results from the knowledge I have 
that the cordiality which I find here represents in reality the 
friendship that Brazilians entertain for my dear country. 
Not in my personal name or as representative of an isolated 
individual, but in the name of all the people of my country 
and in the spirit of the great declaration mentioned by you, 
Mr. Minister, the declaration known by the name of Monroe, 
and which was the bulwark and safeguard of Latin America 



16 L.\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

from the da\Mi of its independence, I raise my glass, certain 
that all present will unite with me in a toast to the progress, 
prosperity, and happiness of the Brazilian Republic. 

Speech of Dr. Jaaies Darcy 

The same deep and profound emotion which I, as a Brazilian 
and an American, feel in this hour is undoubtedly felt by all 
here on the floor — representatives of the nation, and identi- 
cal with the nation itself. When the Chamber of Deputies 
sees the Secretary of State of the United States of America in 
the gallery it cannot go on wuth its regular work even for a 
minute longer. So great and extraordinary have been the 
demonstrations occasioned by the presence in our country of 
the eminent envoy of the great republic of the United States 
that it is necessary that the Chamber, in this hour unequaled 
in the whole life of the American Continent, manifest without 
delay its feelings of sympathy with the work for the closer 
rapprochement of the American nations. 

In Scandinavia, the land of almost perpetual fogs and 
mists, there died not long ago an extraordinary man. Ibsen, 
by some called revolutionary, by others evolutionary, 
dreamed in all his works of a new day of peace and concord 
for all mankind. This dream did not exist in the poet's brain 
alone, for it has imbedded itself in the mind and heart of a 
great American politician — Elihu Root. 

From the moment he set foot on Brazilian soil he has been 
received with loud acclamations of joy, in which all Brazil- 
ians have joined. The demonstration which the student- 
body of Brazil made a short time ago, which for enthusiasm 
and spontaneity of feeling has never been equaled, manifested 
our feeling toward Mr. Root. 

In his speech at the third Conference of the American 
Republics, the statesman, the philosopher, the sociologist, 
the great humanitarian that Elihu Root is, opened up a new 



BRAZIL 17 

era for the countries of the continent of such an order that 
the old standard of moraHty has fallen to the ground in 
ruins. On the public buildings, on the fortresses and masts 
of war vessels, waves the same flag — a white flag, reminding 
the American people that a new epoch of fraternity has risen 
for them. 

Nothing has ever done so much for peace as this visit of 
Elihu Root among us. It forms a spectacle that must mark an 
epoch in our national life. The Chamber of Deputies, inter- 
preting the unanimous sentiment of the nation, from north 
to south, of old and young alike, has suggested that I offer 
a motion, which is already approved in advance, and make 
the request that Mr. Elihu Root be invited to take a seat 
on the floor of the Chamber, as a mark of homage in return 
for the honor he has done us in making a visit to this House. 

The memory of this visit will live forever in our hearts. He 
who bestows all favors will undoubtedly reward those who 
have done so much for American peace and fraternity by 
setting them up as models for the whole world. 

Reply of Mr, Root 

I THANK you sincerely for the flattering expressions which, 
through your able and happy spokesmen, you have made 
regarding myself. I thank you still more deeply for the 
expressions of friendship for my country. I beg you to permit 
me in my turn to make acknowledgment to you, the repre- 
sentatives of the people of Brazil — acknowledgment which 
I can make to the President of the Republic, which I can 
make personally to your distinguished and most able Secre- 
tary for Foreign Affairs, but which I wish to make on this 
public occasion to the people of Brazil. I wish to thank the 
Brazilian people for sending to my country a man so able 
and so successful in interpreting his people to us as my good 
friend Mr. Nabuco. I wish to thank the people of Brazil — 



18 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

its legislators, its educated men of literature and of science, its 
students in their generous and delightful enthusiasm, and its 
laboring people in their simple and honest appreciation — for 
the reception which they have given me, overwhelming in its 
hospitality and friendship; for the courtesy, the careful 
attention to every detail that could affect the comfort, the 
convenience, and the pleasure of myself and my family; for 
the abundant expressions of friendship which I have found in 
your streets and in your homes; for the bountiful repasts; 
for the clouds of beautiful flowers with which you have sur- 
rounded us; and, more than all, for the deep sense of sin- 
cerity in your friendship which has been carried to my heart. 
I wish to make this acknowledgment directly to you, the 
direct and immediate representatives of the people. 

We, who in official life have our short day, are of little con- 
sequence. You and I, Mr. President, Baron Rio Branco, the 
President of the Republic himself — we are of little conse- 
quence. We come and go. We cannot alter the course of 
nations or the fate of mankind; but the people, the great 
mass of humanity, are moving up or down. They are march- 
ing on, keeping step with civilization and human progress; 
or they are lapsing back toward barbarism and darkness. 
The people today make peace and make war — not a sover- 
eign, not the whim of an individual, not the ambition of a 
single man; but the sentiment, the friendship, the affection, 
the feelings of this great throbbing mass of humanity, deter- 
mine peace or war, progress or retrogression. And coming to 
a self-governing people from a self-governing people, I would 
interpret my fellow-citizens — the great mass of plain people 
— to the great mass of the plain people of Brazil. No longer 
the aristocratic selfishness, which gathers into a few hands all 
the goods of life, rules mankind. Under our free republics our 
conception of human duty is to spread the goods of life as 
widely as possible; to bring the humblest and the weakest up 



BRAZIL 19 

into a better, a brighter, a happier existence; to lay deep the 
foundations of government, so that government shall be 
built up from below, rather than brought down from above. 
These are the conceptions in which we believe. True, our 
languages are different; true, we draw from our parent coun- 
tries many different customs, different ways of acting and of 
thinking; but, after all, the great, substantial, imderlying 
facts are the same, humanity is the same. We live, we learn, 
we labor, and we struggle up to a higher life the same — you 
of Brazil and we of the United States of the North. In the 
great struggle of humanity our interests are alike, and I hold 
out to you the hands of the American people, asking your 
help and offering you ours in this great struggle of humanity 
for a better, a nobler, and a happier life. You will make 
mistakes in your council, that is the lot of humanity; no 
government can be perfect — till the millennium comes; but 
year by year and generation by generation substantial ad- 
vance toward more perfect government, more complete order, 
more exact justice, and more lofty conceptions of human duty 
will be made. 

■'' God be with you in your struggle as He has been with us. 
May your deliberations ever be ruled by patriotism, by unself- 
ishness, by love of country, and by wisdom for the blessing 
of your whole people, and may universal prosperity and 
growth in wisdom and righteousness of all the American 
republics act and react throughout the continents of America 
for all time to come. 

Speech of Senator Rut Barbosa 

In the Federal Senate of Brazil, at Rio de Janeiro, August 2, 1906 

If your excellency will permit me, Mr. President, I will call 
your attention and that of the Senate to the fact that at this 
moment this House is honored by the presence of jNIr. Elihu 
Root, Secretary of State of the United States. 



20 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

For a week his stay among us has been spreading interest 
throughout the country and filHng the capital with joy, 
causing excitement among the neighboring nations, and fix- 
ing the eyes of Europe on this obscure part of the world. 
The fact is that we are not only in the presence of an indi- 
vidual of great renown, who is one of the highest personages 
among contemporaneous statesmen, with a reputation which 
is dear to the western hemisphere, but we are experiencing 
an event of the most far-reaching international importance, 
in the sense in which this word corresponds to the common 
interests of the human race. 

In the organization of the Government of the United 
States, the portfolio of Secretary of State constitutes a 
notably characteristic and peculiar feature. The Secretary 
is not merely a minister for foreign affairs, but is the guardian 
of the seals of state, the medium through whom the laws are 
promulgated, the depositary of the government archives, and 
the first assistant of the Chief Executive. Tradition has 
conferred upon him a dignity next to that of President, the 
law making him second in the order of succession to the pres- 
idency by vacancy of the office, while it has become the 
custom for the President to invite him to participate in the 
performance of his duties rather as a colleague and associate 
than as an adviser and servant. The triumphant candidate 
in a presidential election has at times called to this office his 
vanquished opponent, thus showing the homage paid by 
party spirit to the value of merit. Being popularly desig- 
nated as head of the Cabinet, and granted the honors of pre- 
cedence at diplomatic functions, his high political entity 
inscribes him, together with the head of the nation, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, and the chairmen of the two great financial 
committees of Congress, among the five or six personalities 



BRAZIL 21 

whose influence usually directs the Government of the 
United States. 

But a true idea of this eminent position cannot be formed 
without some light on its history; for the line of Secretaries 
of State sparkles with the almost continuous luster of a long, 
luminous zone, in which irradiate the dazzling names of 
Jefferson, one of the patriarchs of independence in the 
foundation and organization of the United States, the philos- 
opher, the writer, the statesman, the creator of parties, the 
systematizer of popular education, and the twice-elected 
successor of Washington; of Randolph, through whose 
initiative the stain produced by the word " slavery " was 
effaced from the provisional draft of the American Consti- 
tution; of Marshall, the most eminent jurist in the Republic, 
the oracle of the Constitution and the constructor of the 
Federal law; of Madison, the emulator of Hamilton in the 
editing of The Federalist; of Monroe, the asserter of the inter- 
national doctrine of the independence of this continent; 
of John Quincy Adams, the pioneer of abohtionism in his 
radical condemnation of slavery; of Clay, the warm defender 
of the South American colonies in their struggle for emanci- 
pation; of Webster, the Demosthenes of the Union and of 
American liberty; of Seward, the rival for election of Lincoln, 
but who, being defeated by the latter, was invited by him 
to form part of his Cabinet; of Forsyth, Calhoun, Everett, 
Marcy, Evarts, Blaine, Bayard, and Hay. It is a path of 
stars, at the termination of which the administration of Mr. 
Elihu Root does not pale. 

The annals of the United States could be traced by the 
route of this numerous constellation, whose radiant points 
sparkle around yon apex, to send forth their beams today 
from yon gallery, illumining the Brazilian Senate, trans- 
figuring the scene of our ordinary deliberations, and realizing, 



22 L\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

with the pomp of the evocation of this glorious past, the 
spectacle of the visit of one nation to the other which the illus- 
trious Secretary of State presented before our eyes when, 
a few days ago, he said in response to our eminent and 
worthy Minister for Foreign Relations, that his coming in 
the official capacity of his office to the land of the Cruzeiro 
constitutes a natural expression of the friendship which 
the eighty millions of inhabitants of the great Republic of the 
North feel toward the twenty million souls of the Republic 
of Brazil. 

It is not, then, a diplomatic representation; it is not an 
embassy. It is the Government of the United States itself 
in person, in one of its predominant organs — an organ so 
exalted that it holds almost as high a position there in the 
national sentiment as the Presidency itself. For the first 
time is the North American Union visiting another part of 
the continent — Latin America. And this direct, personal 
and most solemn visit of one America to the other has now 
as its scene the Brazilian Senate, assuming, within the brief 
dimensions of this chamber, the magnificent proportions of 
a picture for which our nation constitutes the frame and the 
attentive circle of the nations the gallery. 

For the modest importance of our nation, the event is of 
incomparable significance. None other can be likened to it 
in the history of our existence as a republic. After sixteen 
years of embarrassments, perils, and conflicts, the latter 
appears to be receiving its final consecration in this solemnity. 
It is the grand recognition of our democracy, the proclama- 
tion of the attainment of our majority as a republic. The sta- 
bility of the government, its prestige, its honor and its vigor, 
could not have received a greater attestation before the world. 
Replying to the doubts, the negations, and the affronts with 
which our '89 was received, amidst passions at home and 
prejudices abroad, it signifies the irrevocable triumph of our 



BRAZIL 23 

revolution, closes forever the era of monarchical reassertions 
and opens up our future to order, confidence, and labor. 

Almost all of us who compose this assembly, Mr. President, 
belong to that generation who were opening their eyes to 
public life, or were preparing for it by their higher studies, 
when the struggle was going on in the United States between 
slavery and freedom — that campaign of Titans which tore 
the entrails of America and shook the globe for many years. 

Washington, Jefferson, and Madison had died, despairing 
of the extinction of slavery. This being openly proclaimed 
as the corner stone of the Confederacy, which gloried in 
having as its basis and in holding as a supreme truth the 
subjection by Providence of one race to the other, it looked 
as if the work of the patriarchs of 1787 was doomed to 
inevitable destruction against the black rock, thus consum- 
mating the Jeffersonian prophecy. 

But Christian order prevailed against the chaos of servile 
interests, showing that the Constitution of the United States 
was not that " league with death " and that " compact with 
hell,", as was boldly declared by Garrison upon the breaking 
out of the abolitionist reaction. And when the Union rose 
again, still clinging to liberty, on the ruins of slavery and dis- 
memberment, we who had heard the earthquake, we who had 
witnessed the opening of the abyss, we who had seen swal- 
lowed up in it a million lives and an incalculable amount of 
wealth, and knew of the misfortunes and tears it had caused, 
were surprised by the divine dawn which finally appeared 
with the consoling victory of justice; and we felt the penetra- 
tion of its rays here into the depths of the Brazilian con- 
science, realizing, with a holy horror of the tragedj^ of which 
we had just been the witnesses, that we were still a country 
of slaves. 

Very soon, however, the law of September 28, 1874, imme- 
diately thereafter Brazilian abolitionism, and shortly there- 



24 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

after the lirilliant stroke of abolition in 1888, responded to 
the splendid American lesson by our purification from this 
stigma. 

And if we adopted this lesson in 1889 and 1891, when we 
embraced the federal system and framed a republican con- 
stitution, it was not, as has been said, in obedience to the 
wishes, caprices, or predilections of theorists. Ever since the 
beginning of the past century, the liberal spirit among us had 
become imbued with Americanism through reading The 
Federalist. The idea of federation carried away the Brazilian 
Liberals in 1831. The condemnation of the monarchy in 
Brazil involved fundamentally that of administrative cen- 
tralization and the single-headed form of government which 
were embodied in that regime. The United States gave us 
the first model, and up to that time had furnished us the only 
example of a republican form of government, extending over 
a territorial expanse such as only monarchies had previously 
shown themselves capable of governing. The dilemma was 
inevitable. We had either to adhere to the European solu- 
tion, which is a constitutional monarchy, or else establish a 
republic on the American model. 

We are still today as far from the perfect model which the 
United States present of a federal republic, as we were from 
a likeness to England under the parliamentary monarchy, 
although England was the example we followed in that 
regime, just as the United States is our example in our present 
government. But just as our backwardness in parliamentary 
customs was no cause for us to revert from a constitutional 
to an absolute monarchy, so the insufficiency of our republi- 
can customs constitutes no reason for abandoning the federal 
republic. There are no conditions more favorable for the 
political education of a nation than those presented by our 
constitutional mechanism, modeled after the American type; 
nor could a practical schooling be offered us for such educa- 



BRAZIL 25 

tion equal to that of an intimate approximation between us 
and our great model, our relations of all kinds with the United 
States being drawn closer and multiplied. 

Between them and us there was interposed the stupid, 
sullen wall of prejudices and suspicions with which weakness 
naturally imagines to shelter and protect itself from force. 
But this wall is cracking, tottering, and beginning to crumble 
to ruins under the action of the soil and the atmosphere — 
under the influx of the sentiments awakened by this great 
movement of friendship on the part of the United States 
toward the other American nations. 

In this attitude, in the transparent clearness of its inten- 
tions, in the eloquence of its language, and in the manifest 
frankness of its promises, there stands forth a broad image of 
truthfulness, which may be likened to those breezes in the 
sky on bright and sunny days which clear the horizon, cause 
the azure of the firmament to pervade our souls, and com- 
municate the energy of life to our lungs. May God sustain 
the strong spirit of magnanimity, which is as advantageous 
to themselves as to the weak; and may He illumine the 
minds of the weak with an understanding of a situation 
which, mutually comprehended and maintained with firm- 
ness and honesty, will be productive of incalculable benefits 
for both parties ! 

The United States would already, long ago, have exhausted 
the admiration of the universe by the constant marvels of 
their greatness, if they were not continually surpassing 
themselves. 

I do not allude to their wonderful fecundity, which in a 
hundred years has raised their population from five to eighty 
millions of souls. I do not speak of the greatness of their 
expansion, which has almost quintupled their territorial area 
in one century; I do not refer to the greatness of their mili- 
tary prowess, which has never yet met a conqueror either by 



2C LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

land or sea. Neither am I occupying myself with the great- 
ness of their opulence, which is tending to transfer from 
London to New York the center of capital and the money 
market of the world. I am thinking only of their benefits to 
democracy, to right, and to civilization. 

Their fundamental principles as colonies were based on 
religious freedom. Their first charters embodied the essence 
of liberty in the British constitution. Their Federal Con- 
stitution is considered by the best judges as the highest prod- 
uct of political genius extant among mankind. The five 
years of their civil war constituted a most tremendous sacri- 
fice, made by the superhuman heroism of a nation in the 
higher interests of humanity, for the principle of human 
freedom. Their international influence is frequently exerted 
in the great causes of Christianity and civilization, first 
struggling as they did against piracy in the Mediterranean; 
then opening the doors of Japan to the commerce of the world 
in the Pacific, or fighting for the Armenians against Ottoman 
despotism, or intervening in behalf of the Jews against the 
tyranny of the Muscovite; here sympathizing with South 
America against Spain, with Greece against Turkey, and 
with Hungary against Austria; there promoting that mem- 
orable peace between the Russians and Japanese at Ports- 
mouth, which terminated one of the most horrible hecatombs 
of peoples on record in the history of warfare. The methods 
and rules of their teaching, the inspiration of their inventors, 
the penetrating nature of their institutions, the reproductive 
influence of their example, the contagious activity of their 
doctrines, the active proselytism of their reforms, the irre- 
sistible fascination of their originality, the exuberant flores- 
cence of their Christianity, all exert a profound influence 
upon European culture and on the morals, the politics, and 
the destinies of the world, and guide, improve, and transform 
the American nations. 



BRAZIL 27 

Nothing, however, could be conceived which would more 
magnificently crown this miraculous career and assure for- 
ever to that nation the title, par excellence^ of the civilizer 
among nations, serving the interests of its own prosperity as 
well as ours by a sincere, effective, and tenacious adherence 
to the doctrine announced by Mr. Root, namely the doctrine 
of mutual respect and friendship, of progressive cooperation 
among the American States, large or small, weak or strong; 
abandoning foolish race prejudices and admitting the superior 
power of imitation, science, and modern inventions, which 
are the moral factors in the development of peoples; and 
recognizing the natural truth that the growing evolution of 
the human race must embrace in its orbit of light all the 
civilized nations on this and the other continents. 

Everything in the visit of Mr. Root, everything in his 
words, in his acts, in the impressions left among us by his 
person, everything speaks to us with absolute sincerity and 
resolute mind of devotion to this auspicious program. Our 
eminent guest has seen how Brazil receives the living mes- 
sage of the people of the United States; and, when he returns, 
a faithful witness of our civilization, which is so little known, 
so ill-treated, and so calumniated abroad, he will in all prob- 
ability carry with him a conviction of having found in this 
disliked South America, between the Oyapoc and the Plata, 
the Atlantic and the Andes, a non-indigenous, although new 
sister of the United States, in which the opinion of public men 
and popular sentiment have but one ambition in regard to the 
policy now inaugurated — that it may become rooted for cen- 
turies and that it may shelter our future under its branches. 

I wished, gentlemen — and all the members of this Senate 
wished — that Mr. Root might hear from the mouth of the 
man of experience, authority, and austere demeanor who is 
to preside over us, the most eloquent and highest of these 
expressions of good wishes. 



28 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

For this purpose T move that the Senate do now resolve 
itself into a connnittee of the whole, and that the Secretary 
of State of the United States be invited to take the post of 
honor in this assembly. In this manner the proceedings of the 
Brazilian Senate and its traditions will preserve the memory 
of this date forever. For it is not one of those dates which 
flash and vanish into the past like falling meteors, but it is of 
those which seek the future by luminously furrowing the 
horizon of posterity like ascending stars. 

And if the future is to be a substitution of right in place of 
might, of arbitration in place of war, of congresses in place 
of armies, of harmony, cooperation, and solidarity among 
the American peoples, in place of hostile rivalries, we may, on 
seeing seated here today at the right of our President, the 
Secretary of State of the United States, affirm to him, as 
Henry Clay did on the reception of Lafayette, with a different 
intention but just as truthfully, that he is seated in the midst 
of posterity. 

Speech of Senator Alfredo Ellis 

The Federal Senators, representatives of the Brazilian 
nation, representing the people of twenty states of the Union 
and of the Federal District, here congregated to receive you, 
through me, salute you, and through you, salute President 
Roosevelt and the whole people of the United States of 
Ajnerica. You are truly welcome amongst us, and you are 
welcome amongst us because we know your history; we 
know the history of your country; we know the history of 
your great men, from Washington to Roosevelt. You are 
truly and sincerely welcome amongst us, because you are the 
fortunate messenger, the happy harbinger of a coming civi- 
lization that is looming already in the not-far-distant future, 
bringing in your hands the snowy and brilliant credentials of 
brotherhood and peace. Though you come here, Mr. Root, 



BRAZIL 29 

amid the cannon's roar, or the din of popular acclamations, 
the echo in its grand unanimity that these words awaken in 
the hearts of the Brazilian people throughout all the land, 
from north to south, from east to west, should convince you 
that we, the Brazilian people, trust that the great work that 
is now being done through the delegates of the nineteen 
American republics assembled here for the Third Conference 
of the Pan American Congress, will bear fruit — that it will 
bear fruit just the same as that of which the basis was laid a 
long time ago in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, written by 
Thomas Jefferson and signed by the delegates of nine out of 
the thirteen colonies that had risen in arms against the 
mother-country. On that eventful and never-to-be-forgotten 
day, Pennsylvania's delegate — the great, the wise, the noble 
Benjamin Franklin — with his heart full of sad misgivings, 
full of sad forebodings about the final issue of the war, raising 
himself from the chair on which he had been sitting, observed 
on its back, embroidered on the tapestry, the figure of a 
beaming sun with its golden rays. " I do not know," he said, 
" if this is the image of a rising or a setting sun; please God 
Almighty that it may be that of a rising sun, enlightening the 
birth of a free and prosperous people! " And it was — and it 
was. His wish — his dear wish — was fulfilled; his proph- 
ecy was realized. The country you represent, Mr. Root, 
is now the wonder of the world for its greatness, for its power, 
for its prosperity. 

WTiat we desire — what the Brazilian people desire — 
what we hope, is that in your case, the same prophecy may 
be made and the same prophecy may be realized in relation 
to the results we expect from the Pan American Conference, 
strengthening with indissoluble bonds of harmonious concord 
and a very lasting peace, American brotherhood; banishing 
from the lands of the New World all ambition of conquest 
and the bloody strife of fratricidal wars. 



30 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

To the American people, our brothers, our friends, and our 
companions, the BraziHan nation, treading the same paths 
and controlled by the same great desire to attain its destinies 
in the history of the world, sends through you its most 
affectionate, its most fraternal, its most hearty salutation. 

ADDRESSES IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES 
Speech of Doctor Paula GuimAraes 

August 2. 1906 

The Chamber of Deputies feels itself honored by the presence 
of Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States 
of America. 

The distinguished member of the Government of our great 
sister republic, whose coming to this country is a mark of 
regard and esteem which is very flattering to us and which 
will never be forgotten, has already had opportunity to 
ascertain how deep and sincere are the sentiments of sym- 
pathy which the people of Brazil feel for the North American 
republic, in the extraordinary demonstrations of joy and 
gratitude which have everywhere attended him, and which 
are an eloquent proof of the sincerity and cordiality of our 
traditional friendship and disinterested admiration. 

The entrance of Brazil into the family of republics of the 
American Continent has resulted in closer ties of confra- 
ternity among the nations of the New World. As a result of 
the policy of approximation, happily adopted by the Govern- 
ment of Brazil, we have the meeting in this capital of the 
Pan American Congress, where the distinguished delegates 
of the sister republics have been given a warm and hearty 
welcome. From the WTiite House, w^here President Roose- 
velt firmly maintains the traditions of great American names, 
there has come to us on a mission of peace an eminent and 
highly esteemed statesman, bringing us political ideas of a 
new mould and the frank diplomacy of modern democracies. 



BRAZIL 31 

In words of the highest significance, which are unsurpassed 
for precision and frankness, the far-seeing statesman has 
revealed to us the ideal of justice and peace to which human- 
ity in the near future is to attain, because the rule of force 
" is losing ground," and " sentiment, feeling and affection are 
gathering more and more sway over the affairs of men." The 
words of the distinguished American are familiar to the whole 
world, but here they are firmly engraved on our loyal hearts. 

Differences disappear before the great historic fact at 
which it is our good fortune to be present at this moment, the 
beginning of a new era which is bound to bring great benefits 
to our country. The students, full of hope and enthusiasm, 
the orderly working people — all classes of society, in short, 
unite with public officials in unanimity of approval. 

Gentlemen, it is to confirm these sentiments which every 
Brazilian feels, to proclaim the national aspirations of 
harmony, conciliation, and union, that I arise to thank, in 
behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, the representatives of 
the popular will, IVIr. Elihu Root, for his presence among us, 
and to greet in his person the great and glorious republic of 
the United States of North America, greater for the example 
it gives us of liberty, energy, and order than for its extraor- 
dinary material strength. Glory to the Stars and Stripes! 

Reply of Mr. Root ^""^^ 

I BEG you to believe in the depth of sensibility with which I 
have received the honor you do me, and the honor you do my 
country. The similarity of our institutions is such that I 
come into the presence of this august body with full appre- 
ciation of its dignity and its significance. I feel that I am 
in the presence of the great lawmaking body to which is 
mtrusted, by its representation of the separate states of 
Brazil, the preservation of local self-government throughout 
this vast empire; so that the people of each one of your 



32 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

twenty states, and each one of tlie many states to be erected 
hereafter, as your popuhition increases, may govern itself in 
its local affairs without the oppression which inevitably 
results from the absolute rule of a central power, ignorant of 
the necessities and of the feelings of each locality; and so 
that also, consistently with that local self-government, the 
nationality of Brazil shall be preserv^ed and the principle of 
national power, the dignity and power of the nation that pro- 
tects all local self-governments in their liberty, shall never be 
decreased. I feel also that I am in the presence of the body 
from which must come, not only in the present but in the 
great future of Brazil, that conservative force which is so 
essential to regulate the action of a democracy. By your 
constitution, by the necessities of your existence, it will be 
your function to prevent rash and ill-considered action, to 
see that all the expedients of government, all the theories 
that are suggested, are submitted to the test of practical 
experience and sound reason. 

And so, with the deepest interest in the continued success 
of the Brazilian experiment in self-government, I am most 
deeply impressed with the honor you have done me. The 
encomiums which have been passed here upon my country 
are such that to know of them must in itseK be an incentive 
to deserve them. I hope that every word which has been 
spokeri here about that dear republic from which I come, 
may go to the knowledge of every citizen of the United 
States of America, and may lead him to feel that it is his 
duty to see that this good opinion of our sister republic is 
justified. 

Senator Ruy Barbosa has justly interpreted the meaning 
of my visit. I come not merely as the messenger of friend- 
ship; I come as that, but not merely as that. When demo- 
cratic institutions first found their place in the protests of 
the New World against a colonial government that bound us 



BRAZIL 33 

all hand and foot; when the plain people undertook to gov- 
ern themselves without any Heaven-sent superior force to 
control them, how gloomy were the prognostications, how 
unfriendly were the wishes, how uncomplimentary were the 
expressions which, upon the other side of the Atlantic, 
greeted the new experiment — that we should have rule by 
the mob, that disorder and anarchy would ensue, that plain 
men were incapable and always would be incapable, of main- 
taining an orderly and peaceful government. Lo, how the 
scene has changed! The conception of man's capacity to 
govern himself, gaining year by year credit, belief, demon- 
stration, in the new fields of virgin lands, north and south, 
has been carried back across the Atlantic until the old idea of 
a necessary sovereign is shaken to the base. No longer is it 
man's conception of government that it must be by a superior 
force, pressing down what is bad; but that the pressure shall 
be from beneath, with all the good impulses and capacities of 
human nature pressing upward what is good. I come here 
not only to hold out the right hand of friendship to you from 
my country, but also to assert in the most positive, the most 
salient way the solidarity of republican institutions in the 
New World, the similarity of results, the mutual confidence 
that is felt by my country in yours, and by yours in mine; to 
assert before all the world that the great experiment of free 
self-government is a success north and south, the whole New 
World over. From the realization of this fact — this certain 
and indisputable fact — that republican institutions are 
successful, will come that confidence which underlies wealth, 
the security of property that is the basis of our civilization, 
the certainty that the fruits of enterprise will be secure, 
which is the incentive to activity, the independence of the 
people from the hard stress of poverty — the independence 
that comes from ample means of support, and is a condition 
of growth and enjoyment in life. More than wealth, more 



34 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

than production, more than trade, more than any material 
prosperity, there will come with them learning, universal 
education, literature, arts, the charms and graces of life. I 
would think but little of my country if it had merely material 
wealth. I would think but little of my country if the con- 
ception of its people was that we were to live like the robber 
baron of the Middle Ages, who merely gathered into his 
castle for his own luxury the wealth that he had taken from 
the surrounding people. 

A land of free institutions, in which wealth and prosperity 
are made the basis upon which to build up the arts, graces, 
and virtues of life, and in which there is a noble and generous 
sympathy with every one laboring in the same cause — that, 
indeed, is a country of which one may be proud; that is a 
country which is the natural result of free institutions. 

So I come to you to say: Let us know each other better; 
let us aid each other in the great work of advancing civiliza- 
tion ; let the United States of North America and the United 
States of Brazil join hands, not in formal wTitten treaties of 
alliance, but in the universal sympathy and confidence and 
esteem of their peoples; join hands to help humanity forward 
along the paths which we have been so happy as to tread. 
Let us help each other to grow in w^isdom and in spirit, as we 
have grown in wealth and prosperity. 

Mr. Chairman, my poor words are all too ineffective 
to express the depth of sentiment and height of hope that 
I experience here. I believe this is not an idle dream; I 
believe it is not merely the kindly expression or enthusiasm 
of the moment, but that after this day there will remain 
among both our peoples a sentiment which will be of incal- 
culable benefit to the great mass of mankind, which shall help 
these two great nations to preserve and promote the rule of 
ordered liberty, of peace and justice, and of that spirit, 
which underlies all our Christian civilization, the spirit of 



BRAZIL 35 

humanity, higher than the spirit of nationality, more precious 
than material wealth, indispensable to the true fulfillment of 
the mission of liberty. 

SAO PAULO 

Speech of Theodomiro de Camargo 

At a Mass-Meeting of Students of the Law School, in front of the 
Palacio Chaves, August 4, 1906 

The Law School of Sao Paulo is the tabernacle of our 
proudest ideals, of our most grateful traditions. Thence 
departed the first champions of liberty for the holy crusade 
of the slaves' liberation; there expanded and strengthened 
the republican ideas that caused the fall of the monarchy; 
thence have come almost all our rulers and leading men. 

It is in the name of that school, sir, that I salute you and 
give you welcome, not only as the eminent statesman but 
also and specially as the loyal and dedicated friend of 
Brazil. 

I can assure you that common to all Brazilians are the 
sentiments of true sympathy and great admiration for the 
noble country which has in you so worthy a representative. 
This sympathy and this admiration, common to all Brazil- 
ians, are well deserved by the wonderful people which liber- 
ated Cuba with the precious blood of her sons; are well 
deserved by the generous nation which contributed so much 
in raising in the Orient the banner of peace, putting an end 
to one of the most sanguinary struggles registered in univer- 
sal history. The deep joy with which you have been received 
since you set foot on Brazilian soil is suflScient to assert what 
I say. 

We rejoice to receive your visit because it is a proof that 
our feelings are reciprocated, and also because it will be a 
stronger link to bind forever the two great republics that are 
destined to lead their American sisters through the wide path 
of progress and civilization. 



36 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

President McKinley wisely said : " The wisdom and energy 
of all the nations are not too great for the world's work "; so 
our earnest vows are that your voyage cooperates for the 
true fraternity of the American republics, that they may work 
together in the pursuit of the highest and noblest endeavor of 
humanity, which is universal peace. 

Speech of Mk. Galaor Nazareth de Arujo, of the 
Normal School 

** Be welcome, distinguished visitor! " This phrase, so often 
addressed to you during your voyage in Brazil, may now be 
said again to express the sincerity with which the people of 
Sao Paulo receive the visit of one of the greatest statesmen 
of modern America. 

Amongst the institutions of education of this city there is 
the Normal School, which has always tried to follow the 
methods and systems in use in your great country. 

In the name of this institution and representing my col- 
leagues, I come before you, sir, to repeat, with all my 
heart, the words you have heard so many times in Brazil: 
"Welcome, Mr. Root!" 

Speech of Mr. Gama, jr., of the Commerclajl School 

A REPRESENTATIVE of a peaceful people is always welcome 
to Brazil. You know already our traditional policy. From 
the beginning of our existence as a nation we have accus- 
tomed ourselves to see in your glorious country the nation 
which, first of all, substituted for military' imperialism the 
beneficent and civilizing policy of free commercial expan- 
sion, joining producers and consumers without any link of 
dependence. 

We followed with ardent sjonpathy your liberal and emi- 
nently humane action in the Chinese Empire, at the moment 
when that monarchy seemed doomed to dismemberment. 



BRAZIL 37 

And you, sir, were the first to make understood the need of 
the maintenance of the administrative and territorial status 
quo of that empire, to which, as well as to other nationali- 
ties of the Far East, you are today the securest guaranty of 
national integrity. 

You come to us, therefore, with the credentials of a peace- 
ful people, and of a people that respects the autonomy of 
other nations, no matter how weak they may be. 

In this quality we open to you our arms, and we heartily 
meet your wishes in the assurance that we contribute to the 
development of the ideas of peace and steadiness, without 
which the evolution of a people can only be accomplished 
imperfectly and at the cost of many centuries of hard effort. 

The United States of Brazil acknowledged the advantages 
of a perfect communion of views in commercial matters with 
their great sister of North America. They were aware that 
essentially opposite points of view regarding commercial 
interchange separate them from some of the nations of the 
Old World. 

So long as on the other side of the Atlantic an almost 
invincible barrier of customs duties impedes the entry of our 
products into markets naturally hostile to South American 
productions, our country has only two alternatives : either to 
continue the very irksome commercial relations with those 
markets, or to look for others with evident loss of a part of the 
harmony that ought to exist between nations affiliated by 
origin and for so many years united by the most intimate 
links of sympathy and intellectual solidarity. 

Consequently, we adopted the legitimate defense of protec- 
tionism, while remaining faithful to those friendly feelings, 
and very naturally we turned to the continental nation that 
better understood the advantages of a free exchange of prod- 
ucts; we looked unsuspiciously to the friendly people who 
conceived the idea of making in America, united and strong, 



38 LATIN AiNIERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

a large neutral area devoted to peace amidst the possible 
divergencies that may perchance in time separate in aggres- 
sive antagonism a rejuvenated and martial Orient and the 
nations of the West. 

We understood at once the difficult task to be accom- 
plished, in order, by your side and with your aid, to secure 
the neutralization of America, so desirable and so necessary 
for the final reconciliation of nations still militarized, and for 
the establishment of a secure standpoint for the general 
fraternization of mankind. 

AJl the enthusiastic appreciation of the twenty-one democ- 
racies that follow and love your deed, and all the facilities and 
cooperation that they can offer for its accomplishment, you 
will find, sir, should you visit them as you now do one of their 
number, in the corresponding tw^enty-one Brazilian capitals. 

The Commercial School of Sao Paulo, from which very 
likely will come later commercial agents of Brazil, sincerely 
espouses your policy of peace and solidarity on the American 
continent; and in the person of its eminent chancellor 
salutes the noble North American nation. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you, students of Sao Paulo, for your greeting and 
for your generous sympathy. 

I am here upon a mission of friendship and of appreciation. 
I am here in order that my country may know more of the 
people of Brazil, and in order that the people of Brazil may 
learn more of my country, believing that the cause of almost 
all controversy between nations, the most fertile source of 
weakness and of war, is national misunderstanding and the 
prejudice that comes from misunderstanding. 

I shall go back to my country and tell my people that I 
have found in this famous city of learning, Sao Paulo, a great 
body of young men who are gathering inspiration in the 



BRAZIL 39 

cause of learning and of human rights from the atmosphere 
of Hberty and independence. 

I shall tell them that here, where the independence of 
Brazil was born, the spirit of that independence still lives in 
the youth of Brazil. 

I shall tell them that here in the birthplace of presidents 
more young Brazilians are treading the first steps in the path- 
way of patriotism and greatness, pressing on to take the 
place, to take up and continue the great work of the men 
born in Sao Paulo, who have contributed so mightily to the 
greatness of Brazil. 

Let me say one word, young gentlemen, as to the lessons 
that you may draw from your country's glorious past. 

Noble and inspiring as are the victories Brazil has won in 
war; remarkable, eloquent, unsurpassed as are the great 
things done in the past by the Paulistas, greater and nobler 
victories of peace await the people of Brazil and Sao Paulo. 

You have, as my country had, a vast continent with 
savage nature to subdue. You have, as my country had, 
with almost immeasurable forests fit for human habitation, 
to welcome to your free land the millions of Europe seeking 
to escape from hard conditions of grinding poverty. You 
have before you that noblest product of our time, that 
chief result of our institutions, the open path to progress 
and success for every youth of Brazil. Because this is a 
free land, because you are a republic, because you are a 
self-governing people, there is no limit to what each one 
of you may accomplish by the exercise of your own knowl- 
edge, determination, and ability. It is the free spirit that 
keeps open the door of that limitless expanse, and that 
will conquer the wilderness and make Brazil a refuge for the 
poor of other lands, and a country rich and teeming with 
people, prosperous, learned, and happy in the years and 
centuries to come. 



40 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 
Speech of Mr. Root 

On Presenting a Football Trophy, Sao Paulo, August 4, 1906 

The pleasant and honorable duty of presenting to you this 
prize of success in the fine and rapid and skillful game we 
have just witnessed has been delegated to me by the kindness 
and consideration of the President and Government of the 
state of Sao Paulo. 

It is a fitting act with which to signalize my first visit to 
this historic and famous city, this ancient center of activity 
and manly vigor, this state famous for centuries for its great 
and noble deeds, and known now throughout the world for 
its successful industry and commerce, known also as the 
home of great men and great patriots in the history of 
Brazil. 

May the generous emulation of this courteous and gentle- 
manly game which you have been playing, be a symbol of 
activity in the commercial, industrial, and social life of the 
country; above all, may it be a symbol of your lives as 
patriots, as citizens of Brazil. Let the best man ever win. Let 
activity and skill and pluck ever have their just rewards. Do 
for your country always as you have done for your rival 
teams in this game of football. Do always your best, and do 
it always with good temper and kindly feeling, whatever be 
the game. 

I congratulate you, sir, and your associates, upon being 
citizens of a country and of a state — both you of Rio de 
Janeiro and you Paulistas, — where the rewards of enterprise 
and activity are secure, and where there is open to every 
youth the pathway of success by deserving success. May 
this prize be an incentive to you and your comrades to exer- 
cise every manly effort, both for yourselves and for your 
country. 



BRAZIL 41 



SANTOS 
Speech of Doctor Rezende 

At the Commercial Association of Santos, August 7, 1906 

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Commercial 
Association of Santos, I bid you welcome. 

The men gathered in this hall to greet you are cosmopolitan 
in character — Americans, Europeans, and Brazilians — men 
who have united their best efforts in the great movement of 
distributing coffee throughout the whole world. 

Coffee is our staple product, and for many years to come is 
bound to be the backbone of our financial system. 

The value of this great product is, however, much greater 
than is shown by the simple figures of statistics. 

In order to understand its true value, we must add to it the 
other articles which are produced with it, and which are 
unknown to the commercial world. 

Coffee also means corn, beans, rice, cattle, etc., which are 

abundantly raised by our coffee planters; coffee means also 
all of our infant industries, and those prosperous towns which 
dot the romantic shores of the Tiete, Paranahyba, and the 
Mogj^-Guasu. For us, sir, coffee means plenty, prosperity, - — 
and perhaps greatness. 

It is therefore easy to see how deeply we are interested in 
the growth of American commerce and civilization. The 
American people need for their trade nearly eleven million v 
bags of coffee per annum, or almost all of an average crop of ^ 
the state of Sao Paulo. 

It is not necessary to lay special stress on this main fact, 
production and consumption; one is the complement of the 
other, and the development of both our activities and inter- 
ests are so identified that we cannot talk of coffee without 
thinking of its greatest consumer, the American people. 



42 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Seventeen years ago, in 1889, James G. Blaine, one of your 
most distinguished statesmen, called together the first Pan 
American Congress in Washington. It is a long time for us 
business men to wait. We feel, however, that the ideals of 
that great statesman have not yet been realized. The great 
distance which separates us is perhaps somewhat responsible 
for the want of closer relations between our peoples; and 
when your visit to our shores was first announced, we Brazil- 
ians all felt that your presence in Brazil meant a new 
departure in American-Brazilian relations. 

We are looking forward with eagerness for the results of the 
sessions of the Pan American Congress in Rio; and this 
interest has been greatly augmented by the high honor you 
confer upon us in selecting this opportunity to visit our 
people and our country, thus strengthening the ties of friend- 
ship between Americans and Brazilians; and though we 
belong to a class accustomed to consider only facts and cold 
figures, we are deeply touched by this high distinction, and, 
representing the Santos Board of Trade and the coffee 
planters of Sao Paulo — the greatest cofiFee producers of 
the world — I offer most hearty greetings to you, and 
through you to the great American people, the chief con- 
sumers of coffee in the world. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

/ It is a great pleasure to represent here in this great com- 
^x mercial city the best and largest customer you have. The 
United States of America bought in the last fiscal year, the 
statistics of which have been made public, from the United 
States of Brazil about $99,000,000 worth of goods, and we 
sold to Brazil about $11,000,000 worth of goods. I should 
like to see the trade more even; I should like to see the pros- 
perity of Brazil so increase that the purchasing power of 
Brazil will grow; and I should like to see the activity of 



BRAZIL 43 

that purchasing power turned towards the markets of the 
North American republic. I am well aware that the course 
of trade cannot be controlled by sentiment or by govern- 
ments. It follows its own immutable laws and is drawn 
solely in the direction of profit. But there are many ways in 
which the course of trade can be facilitated, can be stimu- 
lated, can be induced and increased. Mutual knowledge 
leads to trade. All the advertisement in the world which 
pays is but the means of carrying information, knowledge, 
and suggestion to the mind that reads the advertisement. 
Mutual knowledge as between the people of North America 
and the people of Brazil — knowledge as between the indi- 
vidual people — will increase the trade. Our people will buy 
more coffee and more sugar and more rubber from the people 

\ they know, from the various trading concerns that they know 
about, than they will from strangers. Mutual knowledge 

. cannot exist without mutual respect. I believe so much in 
the goodness of humanity that I think no two people can 
know each other without respecting each other. 

There is the friendliest feeling in the United States of 
America for the people of Brazil, and we believe that there is 
great friendliness in this country for the people of the United 
States. We wish to be good friends and ever better friends; 
to enlarge our mutual trade to the advantage of both; and 
it is to express that feeling to you from my people with all the 
kindliness and friendship possible, that I am here in Brazil. 
It has been a great privilege to see something of your great 
coffee production — from the coffee plant on its red platform 
of the peculiar soil of Sao Paulo to the bags of coffee being 
carried to the steamer in which it is to be transported to the 
markets of the world. It is pleasing to me to see that the 
great commercial port of Santos has by the improvement of 
its harbor facilities become more and more great, and has 
done away with the unhealthiness that once existed. I con- 



44 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

gratulatc you upon the fact that you have made your port 
and your city so healthy that yellow fever no longer exists. 

This is probably the last word I shall utter in public before 
I leave the coast of Brazil, and as I pass from among you, I 
shall endeavor to make my last word an expression of grate- 
ful appreciation for all the courtesy, the kindliness, and the 
friendliness which has surrounded me every hour, from the 
moment I first landed at Para three weeks ago today. My 
reception and that of all my family — the attentions that 
have been paid to us, the kindness that has been exhibited — 
far exceed anything that I anticipated or had hoped for; and 
I beg you to believe that we shall never forget it. We shall 
make it known to our people when we return home. I 
believe that it will increase the friendship they feel for the 
people of Brazil; and it is with the greatest satisfaction that 
I shall feel entitled upon my return to say to the people of the 
United States that I have found in the republic of Brazil a 
country to which the laborers of the world may come to make 
new homes and to rear their families in prosperity and in 
happiness; that I may say to my people that I have found 
in the republic of Brazil a country where capital is secure, 
where the rights of man are held sacred, and the rew^ards of 
enterprise may be reaped without hindrance. I shall go from 
you with the hope that in my weak way I may do what it is 
possible for one man to do in return for all the friendship that 
you have shown me throughout Brazil — may give my evi- 
dence to aid in turning towards your vast and undeveloped 
resources that immigration and that capital which have been 
the means of building up and developing the vast riches of 
my own country. I hope that the same brilliant and pros- 
perous success that has blessed my own land may for many 
generations visit the people of Brazil. I hope that for many 
a year to come the two peoples, so similar in their laws, their 
institutions, their purposes, and the great task of develop- 



BRAZIL 45 

ment that lies before them, may continue to grow in friend- 
ship and in mutual help. And so, gentlemen, I make to you, 
and through you to the people of Brazil, my grateful and 
appreciative farewell. 

PARA 

Speech of His Excellency Augusto Montenegro 

Governor of the State of Para 

In the City of Pard (Belem), at a Breakfast given by him to Mr. Root 
July 17, 1906 

I WILL say but a few words in offering the health of Mr. Root, 
the very illustrious Secretary of State of the United States of 
North America. I regret exceedingly that Mr. Root should 
have only a few hours available to remain among us; but 1 
know that his time is limited and that he cannot remain 
among us without inconvenience; however, I hope that these 
few hours which His Excellency has devoted to Para will have 
been sufficient for him to carry away a good impression of 
this region. I also fervently hope that Mr. Root's visit may 
mark the beginning of a new era in the diplomacy of the two 
Americas, and that, if possible, it may contribute still further 
to a strengthening of the friendly ties which already bind the 
two republics together. I hope that Mr. Root will gather the 
very best impressions of the whole country from his other 
visits. I am certain that he will be received everywhere with 
that cordiality, hospitality, and affection which we proudly 
proclaim as being among the chief characteristics of the 
Brazilians. I drink to the health of Mr. Root and of the 
great and noble President of the United States of North 
America. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you most sincerely for your kind expressions and for 
your gracious hospitality. It is with the greatest pleasure 
that I have come to the great republic of Brazil, that I 
might by my presence testify to the high consideration enter- 



46 L.VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

tained by the Republic of the North for her sister republic; 
that I might testify to the strong desire of the United States 
of America for the continuance of the growth of friendship 
between her and the United States of Brazil. Both of us — 
both of our countries, — have of recent years been growing so 
great and rich that we can afford now to visit our friends, 
and also to entertain our friends. Let us therefore know 
each other better. I am sure that the more intimately we 
know each other the better friends we shall be. I know that 
because I know the feelings of my countrymen, and I know 
it because I experience your whole-hearted hospitality. 

It has been a delight for me to see your beautiful, bright, 
and cheerful city, which, with its people happy and giving 
evidence of well-being and prosperity, with its comfortable 
homes, with its noble monuments, with its great public 
buildings and institutions of benejficence, with its beautiful 
flowers and noble trees, justifies all that I had dreamed of 
in this august city of the great empire which reaches from 
the Amazon to the Uruguay. 

I thank you for your reference to the President of the 
United States. His great, strong, human heart beats in 
unison with everything that is noble in the heart of any 
nation and with every aspiration of true manhood. Every 
effort tending to help a people on in civilization and in pros- 
perity finds a reflex and response in his desire for their happi- 
ness. He is a true and genuine friend of all Americans, 
north and south. In his name I thank you for the welcome 
you have given me, and in his name I propose a toast to the 
President of the United States of Brazil. 



BRAZIL 47 

PERNAMBUCO 

Summary of Speech of His Excellency Sigismundo 

GONgALVEZ 

Governor of the State of Pernambuco 

At a Breakfast given by him to Mr. Root, in the City of Pernambuco 
(Recife), July 22, 1906 

His Excellency Sigismundo Gongalvez, Governor of Pernambuco, said 
that he had never felt so strong a desire to speak English in order to 
express the satisfaction he felt at receiving the distinguished visitor, and 
after wishing the Secretary a very pleasant and prosperous voyage, pro- 
posed the health of President Roosevelt.^ 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I REGRET in my turn that I cannot respond to you in the 
language of the great race which has made the great country 
of Brazil. I thank you both for myself and in behalf of my 
country for your generous hospitality and the friendship you 
have exhibited. It is the sincere desire of the President and 
of all the people of the United States to maintain with the 
people of Brazil a firm, sincere, and helpful friendship. 
Much as we differ, in many respects we are alike. Like yours, 
our fathers fought for their country against savage Indians. 
Like yours, our fathers fought to maintain their race in their 
country against other European races. ' It is a delight for me 
on these historic shores to come to this famous place, made 
glorious by such centuries of heroic, free, and noble patriotism. 
It is especially delightful for me to be welcomed here, where 
the cause of human freedoni received the powerful and ever- 
memorable support of a native of Pernambuco, whose name 
is dear to me, Joaquim Nabuco — a name inherited from a 
distinguished ancestry by my good friend, your illustrious 
townsman, the present ambassador of Brazil to the United 
States. It is the chief function of an ambassador from one 
country to another to interpret to the people to whom he 

* This speech was not reported and therefore cannot be reproduced. 



48 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

goes the people from wliom he comes; and Joaquim Nabuco 
has presented to the people of the United States a concep- 
tion of Brazilians, and especially of the men of Pernambuco, 
admirable and worthy of all esteem. He is our friend, and 
because he is our friend we wish to be your friends. I ask 
you to join me now in drinking to the health of the President 
of the repubhc of Brazil. 

BAIHA 

Speech of His Excellency Senhor Doctor Jose 

Marcelino de Souza 

Governor of Bahia 

At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, at Bahia, July i4i, 1906 

It is not without reason that the entire world is elated at the 
grand spectacle exhibited in the New World congregating its 
free and independent peoples in order to lay the foundations 
of a lasting peace. 

In fact, the Old World looks on with sincere admiration at 
the complete demolition of the ancient precepts of inter- 
national law. Ever since the right of the stronger has 
ceased to supersede the sound principles of justice; ever 
since the divine philosophy of the Jews taught men brotherly 
love for one another, the ancient international law underwent 
profound transformations. 

Notwithstanding this, however, for a long time armies and 
costly navies continued to weigh down our public treasuries 
and the cannon continued to decide questions arising among 
nations. 

Now, all Europe has its eyes turned towards America, 
which has noteworthilj^ constituted itself the apostle of peace. 

For a long time the American peoples have been settling 
their difficulties by means of arbitration. 

It is this policy that is seen to be manifesting itself since 
the downfall of the ancient institute of international law 



BRAZIL 49 

which, instead of causing the people on the other side of the 
Atlantic fear, ought to fill them with joy, because it tightens 
the international economic and commercial relations of this 
planet. 

These are the aims and objects of Pan Americanism. 

It does not inculcate war. Its gospel is concord. It has 
seen what a little while ago was nothing more than the dream 
of poets, the ideal of philosophers, develop into a reality. 

Gentlemen, America must grow up, but intrenching itself 
with peace, and growing not by the augmentation of the 
sinews of war but by systematizing and utilizing the resources 
of her economic force. 

This is the ideal of American nations. Therefore, although 
the other continents have long feared this propaganda, it is to 
be hoped that she will carry out her program of love and of 
fraternization, because thus America will have established 
international and economic relations with the entire world 
upon indestructible foundations. 

The Honorable Elihu Root, the herald of the prosperous 
and powerful North American republic, who brings to Brazil 
the assurance of his friendship and the most hearty support 
of the Pan American Congress whose third conference has 
just been opened at Rio, is the most important missionary of 
that gospel. 

The presence of His Excellency in that noteworthy assem- 
blage is the assurance of reconciliation, of the growth of the 
free people of America. 

Bahia, an important part of the Brazilian Federation, 
which receives this testimonial of friendship from the great 
republic of the North, through its Secretary of State, cannot 
help but feel the greatest joy at foreseeing the great results of 
that conference and of this auspicious visit, which assumes 
the proportions of an embassy, of an appeal to the republics 
of the new continent for the inauguration of inseparable 



50 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

bonds of mutual solidarity, for the concerted eflFort to compel 
the disappearance of the sad note of war. 

In the shadow of the solemn inauguration of Pan Ameri- 
canism, three nations of Central America found themselves in 
the battlefield in a deplorable spectacle of hatred and 
bloodshed. 

Happily, as is announced by telegraph, thanks to the good 
offices of the United States and of Mexico, peace has been 
established among the nations, to the honor of the Christian 
civilization of our continent. 

This policy of concord, therefore, accomplishes good. I 
repeat, America must prosper. It is necessary that the Mon- 
roe Doctrine triumph, not to the exclusion of the civilization 
of the Old World, but to the benefit of all humanity. 

Nature has cut the continent from north to south without 
regard to its continuity; from north to south is the same poli- 
tical regime; and protecting it with two great nations, nature 
has not wished to isolate us from the rest of the world, but on 
the contrary to endow us with sources of wealth and to 
multiply the means of easy communication with centers of 
civilization. 

Gentlemen, in the name of Bahia, I greet the great ideal of 
humanity that is treading a victorious path! I greet the 
republic of North America, the efficient collaborator in this 
profoundly humane policy, the principal promoter of the 
Pan American Conference, in the person of its illustrious 
Secretary of State, Elihu Root! 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I BEG to acknowledge with sincere appreciation your kindly 
and most flattering expressions regarding myself. I receive 
with joy the expression of sentiments regarding my country, 
which I hope may be shared by every citizen of the great 
republic of Brazil. It is with much sentiment that I find 



BRAZIL 51 

myself at the gateway of the south, through which the civi- 
lization of Europe entered from the Iberian Peninsula the 
vast regions of South America. I, whose fathers came 
through the northern gateway, on Massachusetts Bay, thou- 
sands of miles away, — where the winters bring ice and snow 
and where a rugged soil greeted the first adventurers, — find 
here another people working out for themselves the same 
problems of self-government, seeking the same goal of indi- 
vidual liberty, of peace, of prosperity, that we have been 
seeking in the far north for so many years. We are alike in 
that we have no concern in the primary objects of European 
diplomacy; we are free from the traditions, from the con- 
troversies, which the close neighborhood of centuries on the 
continent of Europe has created — free, thank Heaven, 
from necessity for the maintenance of great armies and great 
navies to guard our frontiers, leaving us to give our minds to 
the problem of building up governments by the people which 
shall give prosperity and peace and individual opportunity 
to every citizen. In this great work, it is my firm belief that 
we can greatly assist each other, if it be only by sympathy 
and friendship, by intercourse, exchange of opinions and 
experience, each giving to the other the benefits of its success, 
and helping the other to find out the causes of its failures. 
We can aid each other by the peaceful exchanges of trade. 
Our trade — yes, our trade is valuable, and may it increase; 
may it increase to the wealth and prosperity of both nations. 
But there is something more than trade; there is the aspi- 
ration to make life worth living, that uplifts humanity. 
To accomplish success in this is the goal we seek to attain. 
There is the happiness of life; and what is trade if it does 
not bring happiness to life ? In this the dissimilarity of 
our peoples may enable us to aid each other. We of the 
north are somewhat more sturdy in our efforts, and there are 
those who claim we work too hard. We are too strenuous in 



1 



52 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

our lives. I wish that my people could gather some of the 
charm and grace of living in Bahia. We may give to you 
some added strength and strenuousness; you may give to us 
some of the beauty of life. I wish I could make you feel — I 
wish still more that I could make my countrymen feel — what 
delight I experience in visiting your city, and in observing 
the combination of the bright, cheerful colors which adorn 
your homes and daily life, with the beautiful tones that time 
has given to the century -old walls and battlements that look 
down upon your noble bay. The combination has seemed to 
me, as I have looked upon it today, to be most remarkable; 
and these varying scenes of beauty have seemed to be sug- 
gestive of what nations can do for each other, some giving 
the beauty and the tender tones ; some giving the sturdy and 
strenuous effort. May the intercourse between the people of 
the north and the people of Brazil hereafter not be confined 
to an occasional visitor. May the advance of transportation 
bring new and swift steamship lines to be established be- 
tween the coasts of North and South America. May we hope 
by frequently visiting each other to make our peoples strong 
in intercourse and friendship. May we be of mutual advan- 
tage and help to each other along the pathway of common 
prosperity, and may my people ever be mindful of the honor 
which you have done to them, through the gracious and 
bountiful hospitality with which you have made me happy ! 

Speech of Senator Ruy Barbosa 

After Mr. Root's admirable speech, after such an orator as 
Mr. Root, and so inspired as he has been, nobody should have 
the courage to speak. Nevertheless, I do not know how to 
resist the wishes of our amiable host, our eminent Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, and of those who surround me here. 
This is quite an unexpected surprise for me; but it comes in 



BRAZIL 53 

so imperious a way that I cannot but submit, hoping you will 
be indulgent. 

We have felt in Mr. Root's words the vibration of the 
American soul in all its intensity, in all its eloquence, in all 
its power, in all its trustiness. So they could not have a 
better answer than the applause of so brilliant an audience as 
has just greeted his remarkable speech. However, since the 
task of rendering the echo of Mr. Root's words in our hearts 
devolves upon me, 1 can only perform it truthfully by thank- 
ing him " again and still again," for his beneficent visit to 
Brazil. 

We suppose, Mr. Root, that it does not come only from 
you. We are sure that you would not take this far-reaching 
step unless you counted, without a shadow of doubt, upon 
the sanction of American opinion. And knowing as we do 
that the United States are, from every standpoint, the most 
complete and dazzling success among modern nations, 
admiring them as the honor and pride of our continent, we 
rejoice, we exult, to open our homes, our bosoms, the arms of 
our modest and honest hospitality, to the giant of the repub- 
lics, to the mother of American democracies, in the person 
of her own Government, one of whose strongest and noblest 
functions centers in the person of her Secretary of State. 

Our life as an independent nation is not yet a long one. We 
are, as such, only about eighty years old, albeit this may not 
be a very brief period in these days of ours, when time should 
not be measured by the number of years, inasmuch as not a 
great deal more than a century has been enough for the 
United States to become one of the greatest powers in the 
world. Short as it is, however, our national existence has not 
been devoid of noble dates, of fruitful and memorable events. 

Amidst them, IVIr. Root, this one will stand forever as a 
blessed landmark, or rather as the gushing-out of a new 



54 L.\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

political stream, whose waves of peace, of freedom, of 
morality, shall spread by and by all over the immensity of 
our continent. 

This is our wish, I will not say our dream, but our hope. 
You must have felt it, and will continue to feel it, at the 
throbbing of our national arteries, in Recife, in Bahia, now 
in this capital, and tomorrow in Sao Paulo. 

Do not see in my words the looming of a momentous sen- 
sation. No! They do not tell my own impressions as an 
individual. They convey truthfully the voice of the people 
through the lips of a man who does not serve other interests. 
They only anticipate, I believe, what you shall hear from our 
legislative representation, in the highest demonstration of 
public feeling possible under a popular government; may 
the historic scene of Lafayette, the liberal French soldier, the 
fellow-helper in American independence, being received in the 
American House of Representatives, find a worthy imitation 
in the reception of the great American Minister, the daring 
promoter of union in the American continent, by the two 
Houses of our National Congress. 

So let us raise our cup to the northern colossus, the model 
of liberal republics, the United States of America, in their 
living and vigorous personification, in their image visible and 
cherished among us, Mr. Elihu Root. 



URUGUAY 

MONTEVIDEO 
Speech of His Excellency Jose Romeu 

Minister for Foreign Affairs 
At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, August 10, 1906 

WHEN, after plowing through the waters of the Carib- 
bean Sea and running along the eastern coast of Brazil 
the North American cruiser Charleston entered the magnifi- 
cent bay of Rio de Janeiro, I had the opportunity of sending 
to the illustrious representative of the United States, who 
today is our distinguished guest, a telegraphic greeting on the 
occasion of his arrival in South America and expressing 
the desire that his arrival might be the beginning of an era of 
fraternity and intercourse advantageous to all the nations 
of the American Continent. 

The words of the telegram, the significant reply of the 
Secretary, and the very eloquent words he delivered before 
the Pan American Congress at Rio de Janeiro, are not a mere 
act of international courtesy; they are, in my judgment, 
the expression of the popular sentiment. They constitute the 
aspiration of all America. They express, at the least, the 
fervent desires of the Uruguayan people and of its Govern- 
ment, who see in the visit of the illustrious Secretary of 
State the foreshadowing of progress, of culture, and fra- 
ternity, which will bring the peoples closer together, con- 
tributing to their prosperity and to their greatness, through 
which they may figure with honor in the concert of civilized 
nations. 

These sentiments, as is well known, have been increasing 
with the events that have made a vigorous people of the great 
northern republic, capable of preponderating in the destinies 

S6 



50 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

of humanity on account of the enterprising genius of all its 
sons, on account of the irresistible force of its energies and of 
its abundant riches; and, very especially, on account of its 
redeeming influence of republican virtues, a characteristic 
mark of the Puritan and the other elements which organized 
the Federal Government on the immovable base of liberty, 
justice, and democracy. 

The pages of history show that the ideals of its own Con- 
stitution, like every great and generous ideal, passing over the 
distance from the Potomac to the banks of the River Plata, 
penetrated immediately to the farthest corner of the Ameri- 
can Continent. There soon afterwards arose a new world of 
free countries where the undertakings of Soils or Pizarro and 
Cortes will initiate a civilization destined to prosper in the 
life-giving blast of liberty and in the vigorous impulse which 
democracy infused into the old organizations of the colonial 
regime. The example of the United States and its moral 
assistance animated the patriots. 

Put to the proof in the memorable struggle for emanci- 
pation, its fortitude and its heroism overturned all obstacles 
until the desired moment of the consolidation, by its own 
efiort, of the independence of the American Continent. 
Indeed, the influence of the United States in the diplomatic 
negotiations which preceded the recognition of the new 
nationalities, and the chivalrous declaration which President 
Monroe launched upon the world, contributed eflicaciously 
to, assure the stability of the growing republic. Its develop- 
ment and its greatness were, from that instant, intrusted to 
the patriotism of its sons, to the fraternity of the American 
peoples, and to the fruitful labor of the coming generations. 

In spite of such social upheavals, which bring with them 
the ready-made collisions of arms, the antagonism of inter- 
ests, and the struggle of ideas — inherent factors of every 
movement of emancipation — the nations of the new con- 



URUGUAY 57 

tinent should not, nor will they, ever forget that from 
Spanish ground Columbus's three-masted vessel — a Hom- 
eric expedition — set forth, founders of numerous peoples 
and flourishing colonies, leaving in our land mementos, 
languages, customs, sentiments and traditions, which the 
evolutions of the human spirit do not easily obliterate. 
From noble France and its glorious revulsion against the 
remnants of feudalism arose the declaration of the rights of 
man and equitable ideas, which are faithfully portrayed in 
our democratic institutions. Italy, Germany, and Spam send 
to America a valuable contingent of their emigration. The 
currents of commerce and progress were at one time, and 
they are at the present time, largely fomented by the ship- 
ping and the capital of Great Britain. From the foreign 
office of that nation, among all the powers of old Europe, 
came the first disposition toward the recognition of American 
independence. All these circumstances are bonds which tie 
us to the European countries, but which do not hinder, nor 
can they hmder, our relations with the great northern 
republic, as with all those of Latin origin, always being 
cordiaUy maintained, strengthened, and increased toward 
the ends of highly noble and patriotic progress, developing a 
world policy of wise foresight, tending to consolidate the 
destinies of the American countries. 

Difficulties, soon to disappear, due to distance and lack of 
rapid and direct communications, have impeded the active 
interchange between the United States and this country, 
barring which no reason exists why their social and com- 
mercial relations may not be extended with reciprocal 
advantages. 

In giving welcome to Mr. Root on his arrival in Uruguayan 
territory, I consider as one of my most pleasing personal 
gratifications the fact of having initiated the idea of inviting 
our distinguished guest to visit the River Plata countries. 



58 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

If, as I do not doubt, the visit of the distinguished member 
of the Government of the United States shall make the 
peoples of the north and the south know one another better; 
if the era of Pan American fraternity takes the' flight to 
which we should aspire; if these demonstrations of courtesy 
are to tend, therefore, toward the progress of the nations of 
the continent and the mutual respect and consideration of 
their respective governments, the satisfaction of having pro- 
moted some of these benefits and the honor of a happy initia- 
tive, deferentially received by the illustrious Secretary of 
State, to whom the oriental people today offer the testimony 
of their esteem and sympathy, belong, at least in part, to the 
Uruguayan foreign office. 

I drink, ladies and gentlemen, to Pan American fraternity, 
to the greatness of the United States of North America, to 
the health of His Excellency President Roosevelt, to the 
happiness of Mr. Elihu Root and of his distinguished family. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I HAVE already thanked you for that welcome message 
which greeted my first advent in the harbor of Rio de 
Janeiro. I have now to add my thanks, both for the gracious 
invitation which brings me here and for the surpassing kind- 
ness and hospitality with which I and my family have been 
welcomed to Montevideo. It is most gratifying to hear from 
the lips of one of the masters of South American diplomacy, 
one who knows the reality of international politics, so just an 
estimate of the attitude of my own country toward her South 
American sisters. The great declaration of Monroe, made 
in the infancy of Latin American liberty, was an assertion to 
/ all the world of the competency of Latin Americans to govern 
I themselves. That assertion my country has always main- 
tained; and my presence here is, in part, for the purpose of 
giving evidence of her belief that the truth of the assertion 



URUGUAY 59 

has been demonstrated; that, in the progressive develop- 
ment which attends the course of nations, the peoples of 
South America have proved that their national tendencies 
and capacities are, and will be, on and ever on in the path of 
ordered liberty. I am here to learn more, and also to demon- 
strate our belief in the substantial similarity of interests and 
sympathies of the American self-governing republics. 

You have justly indicated that there is nothing in the 
growing friendship between our countries which imperils the 
interests of those countries in the Old World from which we 
have drawn our languages, our traditions, and the bases of 
our customs and our laws. 

I think it may be safely said that those nations who planted 
their feeble colonies on these shores, from which we have 
spread so widely, have profited far more from the independ- 
ence of the American republics than they would have 
profited if their unwise system of colonial government had 
been continued. In the establishment of these free and inde- 
pendent nations in this continent they have obtained a profit- 
able outlet for their trade, employment for their commerce, 
food for their people, and refuge for their poor and their 
surplus population. We have done more than that. We 
have tried here their experiments in government for them. 
The reflex action of the American experiments in govern- 
ment has been felt in every country in Europe without excep- 
tion, and has been far more effective in its influence than any 
good quality of the old colonial system could have been. 
And now our prosperity but adds to their prosperity. Inter- 
course in trade, exchange of thought in learning, in literature, 
in art — all add to their power and their prosperity, their 
intellectual activity, and their commercial strength. We 
still draw from their stores of wealth commercially, spiritu- 
ally, intellectually, and physically, and we are beginning to 
return, in rich measure, with interest, what we have got from 



60 L.\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

them. We have learned that national aggrandizement and 
national prosperity are to be gained rather by national friend- 
ship tlian by national violence. The friendship for your 
country that we from the North have is a friendship that 
imperils no interest of Europe. It is a friendship that 
springs from a desire to promote the common welfare of man- 
kind by advancing the rule of order, of justice, of humanity, 
and of the Christianity which makes for the prosperity and 
happiness of all mankind. It is not as a messenger of strife 
that I come to you; but I am here as the advocate of univer- 
sal friendship and peace. 

Address of His Excellency Jose Batlle y Ordonez 

President of Uruguay 
At the Banquet given by him at the Government House, August 11, 1906 

We celebrate an event new to South America — the presence 
in the heart of our republics of a member of the Government 
of the United States of the North. That grand nation has 
wished thus to manifest the interest her sisters of the South 
inspire in her and her purpose of strongly drawling together 
the links that bind her to them. 

Born on the same continent and in the same epoch, ruled 
by the same institutions, animated by the same spirit of 
liberty and progress, and destined alike to cause republican 
ideas to prevail on earth, it is natural that the nations of all 
America should approach nearer and nearer to each other, 
and unite more and more amongst themselves; and it is 
natural, also, that the most powerful and the most advanced 
amongst them should be the one to take the initiative in 
this union. 

Your grand republic, Mr. Secretary of State, is consistent 
in confiding to you this mission of fraternity and solidarity 
with the ideas and intentions manifested by her at the dawn 
of the liberty of our continent. The same sentiment that 



URUGUAY 61 

inspired the Monroe Doctrine brings you to our shores as the 
herald of the concord and community of America. 

We welcome you most cordially. You jSnd us earnestly 
laboring to make justice prevail, enamored of progress, confi- 
dent in the future. Far removed from the European conti- 
nent, whence emerges the wave of humanity that peoples the 
American territories and becomes the origin of nations so 
glorious as yours, the growth and organization of the peoples 
in these regions have been slow; and public and social order 
has been frequently upset in our distant and scarcely popu- 
lated prairies. But in the midst of these disturbances that 
have likewise afflicted, in their epochs of formation, almost all 
the present best constituted nations, sound tendencies and 
true principles of order and liberty prevail, nationalities are 
constituted in a definite manner, and republican institutions 
are consecrated. 

Your great nation, Mr. Secretary of State, is not new to 
this work. She has had important participation it it. I do 
not refer to the Monroe Doctrine that made the elder sister 
the zealous defender of the younger ones. 1 speak of the 
radiant example of your republican virtue, your industrial 
initiative, your economic development, your scientific 
advances, your ardent and virile activity that has reenforced 
our faith in right, in liberty, in justice, in the republic, and 
has animated us — as a noble and victorious example does 
animate — in our dark days of disturbance and disaster. 

Yes, the epoch of internal convulsions is drawing to its close 
in this part of America, and the peoples, finding themselves 
organized and at peace, are dedicating themselves to all those 
tasks that exalt the human mind and originate, in modern 
times, the greatness of nations. You tread upon a land that 
has recently been watered abundantly with blood — upon 
one in which, nevertheless, the love of liberty, within the 
limits of order, the love of well-being, and the love of progress 



02 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

under legal governments is intense; upon one in which we 
live earnestly dedicated, in all branches of activity, to the 
labor that dignifies and fortifies, certain that for us has com- 
menced an honorable era of internal peace. You have said 
it, j\Ir. Secretary of State: Out of the tumult of wars strong 
and stable governments have arisen; law prevails over the 
will of man; right and liberty are respected. 

But this progress of public reason must be complemented. 
It is not sufficient that internal peace should be assured; it 
is necessary to secure external peace also. It is necessary 
that the American nations should draw near to each other; 
should know, should love each other; it is requisite to drive 
away, to suppress the danger of distrust, of rivalry, and of 
international conflicts; that the same sentiment that repudi- 
ated internal struggles should rise within as against the 
struggles of people against people, and that these should also 
be considered as the unfruitful shedding of the blood of 
brethren; that the calamitous armed peace may never appear 
in our land, and that the enormous sums used to sustain it on 
the European and Asiatic continents shall be employed 
amongst us in the development of industries, commerce, arts, 
and sciences. 

The work may be realized by determination and constancy. 
The republican institutions that everywhere prevail on our 
continent are not propitious to the Caesars who make their 
glory consist in the sinister brilliancy of battles and in the 
increase of their territorial domains. These same institutions 
give voice and vote in the direction of public afiFairs to the 
multitudes, whose primordial interest is ever peace, the spar- 
ing of their own blood, so unfruitfully shed in the great 
catastrophes of war. 

America will be, then, the continent of peace, of a just 
peace, founded on respect for the rights of all nations, a 
respect which — as you, Mr. Secretary of State, have said in 



URUGUAY 63 

tones that have resounded all over the surface of the earth, 
deeply moving all true hearts — must be as great for the 
weakest nations as for the most powerful empires. This Pan 
American public opinion will be created and will be made 
effective, a public opinion charged to systematize the 
international conduct of the nations, to suppress injustice, 
and to establish among them relations ever more and more 
profoundly cordial. 

Your country and your Government fulfill the part, not of 
the false friend that incites to anarchy and weakens her 
friends that she may prevail over them and dominate them, 
but that of the faithful and true friend who exerts herself to 
unite them; and, that they may become good and strong, 
concurs with all her moral power in the realization of this 
work of the Pan American Congresses, destined to become a 
modern amphictyon to whose decisions all the great American 
questions will be submitted, already giving prestige thereto 
by such words as you have spoken to the Congress of Rio de 
Janeiro, which present to the American world new and grand 
perspectives of peace and progress. 

Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, in the pres- 
ence of deeds of this magnitude, inspired and filled with 
enthusiasm by them, let us pour out a libation to the United 
States of the North, to its vigorous President, to you and to 
your distinguished family, the herald of continental friend- 
ship, and to the American fatherland, from the Bering Straits 

to Cape Horn. 

Reply of Mb. Root 

I THANK you for the kind reference to myself, and I thank 
you for the high terms in which you have spoken of my coun- 
try, from which I am so far away. Do not think, I beg you, 
sir, if I accept what you have said regarding the country I 
love, that we, in the north, consider ourselves so perfect as 
your description of us. We have virtues* we have good quali- 



64 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

ties, and we are proud of them; but we ourselves know in our 
own hearts how many faults we have. We know the mis- 
takes we have made, the failures we have made, the tasks 
that are still before us to perform. Yet from the experiences 
of our efforts and our successes, and from the experiences of 
\ our faults and our failures, we, the oldest of the organized 
republics of America, say to you of Uruguay, and to all our 
sisters, " Be of good cheer and confident hope." 

You have said, Mr. President, in your eloquent remarks 
this evening, that the progress of Uruguay has been slow. 
Slow as measured by our lives, perhaps, but not slow as meas- 
ured by the lives of nations. The march of civilization is slow; 
it moves little during single human lives. Through the cen- 
turies and the ages it proceeds with deliberate and certain 
step. Look to England, whence came the principles embodied 
in your constitution, and ours, where first were developed the 
principles of free representative government. Remember 
through how many generations England fought and bled in 
her wars of the White and the Red — her blancos and colo- 
rados — the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster, 
before she could win her way to the security of English law. 

Look to France, whence came the great declarations of the 
rights of man and remember — I in my own time can remem- 
ber — the Tuileries standing in bright and peaceful beauty, 
and then in a pile of blackened ruins bearing the inscription, 
"Liberty, equality, and fraternity," doing injustice to liberty, 
to equality, and to fraternity. These nations have passed 
through their furnaces. Every nation has had its own hard 
experience in its progressive development, but a nation is cer- 
tain to progress if its tendency is right. It is so with Uruguay. 
You are passing through the phases of steady development. 
The restless and untiring soul of Jose Artigas, who made the 
independence of Uruguay possible, did its work in its time, 
but its time is past; it is not the day of Artigas now. 



URUGUAY 65 

The genius of the two great men, for the love of whom your 
political parties crystallized upon one side and upon the 
other, had its day, but that day has passed away. Step by, 
step Uruguay is taking its course, as the elder nations of the 
earth have been taking theirs, steadily onward and upward, 
seeking more perfect justice and ordered liberty. 

One of the most deeply seated feelings in the human heart is 
love of approbation. May we not have such relations to each 
other that the desire for each other's approbation shall sustain 
us in the right course and warn us away from the wrong, and 
help us in our development to preserve high ideals, the ideals 
of justice and humanity necessary to free self-government ? It 
is with that hope that I am here, your guest. It is with that 
desire that my people send the message of friendship to yours. 

In the name of my President, Theodore Roosevelt, I 
offer you, Mr. President, the most sincere assurance of 
friendship and confidence. 

Speech of Doctor Zorrilla de San Martin 

At a Breakfast by the Reception Committee, in the Atheneum at Montevideo 
August 12, 1906 

Before we rise from the table I have the pleasant task of 
saying to you a few words to reflect and perpetuate the senti- 
ment which has caused us to desire to share with you the 
bread of Uruguay and to drink in your company the wine 
wKich gladdens the heart of man, according to the expression 
of the Holy Book. 

Yes, IVIr. Secretary, we are glad and happy to have you 
among us, and we wish that this repast, at which, as you see, 
a representative group of the ladies of Montevidean society 
surrounds and bestows graceful attention upon your most 
worthy spouse and your daughter, may be a symbol of the 
intense affection which can be shown to a welcome guest, 
that of opening to you the door of our home, that of intro- 
ducing you into the affections of our household. 



66 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Yes, we are glad, sir, not only because we have the honor of 
knowing you to be a gentleman and an illustrious personage 
who is a glory among the glories of our America, but because 
— I must be very frank with you now, — because we are 
convinced that this visit of yours will redound to the honor 
as well as the benefit of that which is dearest to us, of that 
which we love above all else on earth, our good mother-coun- 
try, Uruguay, this good sovereign mother of ours who is the 
mistress of our life and whom we cannot help believing, under 
pain of ceasing to be her sons, to be the greatest, the most 
beautiful and the most amiable of mothers, just as you think 
of yours, sir; just as you feel regarding your excellent 
American land. We, sir, being perhaps carried away by an 
ingenuous filial illusion, are persuaded that to know our 
Uruguay is to love her; and for this reason we have desired 
that you should know her; for this reason we cherish the 
hope that, when you have returned to your country and recall 
the sum of reminiscences of your memorable voyage, pleasant 
and lucid recollections will burst forth of this people which 
has been the first to shake your hand upon your setting foot 
on the soil of a republic of sub-tropical America, and which 
offers you its bread and drinks with you the wine of friendship 
in a sincere transport of enduring sympathy. 

We thought, Mr. Secretary, that we saw you respectfully 
kiss the brow of our mother when, in a moment which should 
be considered historical, you defined at the Pan American 
Congress of Rio de Janeiro the object and character of your 
visit to the Spanish-American republics, to these favorite 
daughters who are advancing slowly but surely up the steep 
mountain at whose summit the ideal of self-government, 
freedom, and order, and the reign of internal justice and peace 
awaits them; these are the foundation and real guaranty of 
the reign of international justice and peace, to which we 
aspire. 



I 



URUGUAY 67 

Yes, Mr. Secretary, you spoke the truth in your memorable 
speech at Rio de Janeiro, and your words seem like corner 
stones. Sovereign states are not merely coexisting on the face 
of the earth, but are members of one great palpitating 
organism, collective persons who, obeying the same natural 
law which groups together physical persons into civil and 
political society, also instinctively group themselves together 
in order to form the body, the life, and the thought of the 
international world. Just as social life, far from disparaging 
the essential attributes of the sacred human person, con- 
stitutes the ambient medium necessary to the life, the 
development, and the attainment of the inalienable destiny 
of man, so this great commonwealth of nations, whose per- 
manent establishment in America is the earnest desire of the 
Congress at Rio de Janeiro, should have as its inviolable 
basis and essential purpose the life, the honor, the prosperity, 
and the glory of the sovereign states which constitute it. 

You have proclaimed democracy, sir, as the most powerful 
bond which unites the republics of America. But democracy 
is nothing else than the equality of men before the law, and is 
consequently above all the triumphant vindication of the 
right of the weak in their relations with the strong. There- 
fore, sir, in pronouncing this name of our common mother, 
you did so only in order to proclaim, as the American ideal in 
the relations of states, the same noble principle which governs 
the relations of free men, and which is the essence of our 
being; you proclaimed, then, a species of international Amer- 
ican democracy in the bosom of which all persons should 
be persons with full self-consciousness, with an individual 
destiny independent of the destiny of others, with the 
moral and material means to accomplish this destiny, with 
freedom, with dignity, and with all the attributes which 
characterize and ennoble the person and distinguish it from 
inferior beings. 



68 L.VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

To elevate the moral level of this great international 
democracy which you have proclaimed, and of which our 
America should be the prototype, there is but one means, 
namely, to elevate the level of all and every one of the units 
•which compose it, and to stimulate in all and every one of 
them a consciousness of and pride in their own destiny, an 
undying love for the abstract idea of country, and a deep 
conviction that in the sphere of peoples, just as in that of the 
orbs, there is no star, no matter how powerful, which can 
perturb the gravitation of the other stars; for over the entire 
body of the worlds stands the immutable law which governs 
them, and over this law is the sovereign will of the Supreme 
Legislator of orbs and of souls. 

This was the echo in my mind, Mr. Secretary, of what you 
said at Rio de Janeiro and are confirming among us. Your 
w^ords were great and good because they were yours, without 
any doubt; but they were so, above all, because they were in 
accord with the ideal of justice in pursuit of which humanity 
is slowly marching — with that solemn diapason hung 
between heaven and earth which furnishes the pitch from 
time to time to men and peoples and worlds, in order that 
they may not depart from the universal harmony. 

Your words have reverberated like a friendly voice in the 
depths of the soul of this people, which has acclaimed you 
without reserve because it has understood you, sir. And for 
this reason, because I have thought that I interpreted all the 
generous intensity of your attitude and of your speeches, I 
have not told you at this time, as would have appeared 
natural, how much we in Uruguay love and admire your 
wonderful American country, whose stars shine perhaps 
without precedent in the sky of human history, but rather 
how much we respect and with what a passion we love our 
good Uruguayan mother-country, whose sun is also a star; 
how glad we are to see it honored by your visit, and how we 



URUGUAY 69 

cherish the hope that you will bear away a remembrance of 
us as a sincerely friendly people — a people very conscious 
of its own destinies, of its rights, and of its duties; in a word, 
a people very much in accord with that grand harmony 
which exists among sovereign states which respect and love 
one another, and which you have proclaimed in the name of 
your country as the supreme ideal of our free America. 

Ladies and gentlemen, let us fill our glasses with the most 
generous wine, with the wine which most gladdens and cheers 
the heart of man — with the wine of hope — and let us drink 
to the health of our illustrious guest and messenger who 
represents here the intelligence and the thought of the heart, 
and to the health of his wife and daughter, who are the 
amiable symbol thereof; to the greater brilliancy of the stars 
of his country, our glorious friend; to the realization, on the 
American continent and throughout the world, of his exalted 
ideas of peace, fraternity, and justice. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I AM deeply sensible of the honor you confer upon me and 
upon my family by this bounteous, hospitable, and graceful 
festival. It is a special honor that the banquet to which we 
are invited should be presided over by a gentleman who has 
such high esteem in the public life of your own country; that 
the flattering, the too flattering words which have been 
addressed to my poor self — words of just and kindly esteem 
regarding my great and noble country, should be spoken by 
a poet who breathes in his verses the spirit of Uruguay where- 
ever his own world-known literature is found. 

It is a cause of happiness to receive this distinguished con- 
sideration here in this temple devoted to science, to Htera- 
ture, to the arts, to those pursuits which dignify, ennoble, and 
delight mankind, which give the charm and grace to life, 
which make possible the continuance of mankind in the paths 



U^ 



70 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

of civilization. Here in this Atheneum, in this atmosphere 
of scientific and Hterary discussion and thought, already 
exists that world-wide republic which knows no divisions of 
territorial boundary, of races, or of creed. Upon the plat- 
fonn you have erected here, the men of North and the men of 
Soutli America can stand in fraternal embrace. 

I have been preaching for the past few weeks in many 
places and before many audiences the gospel of international 
fraternization. I know there are many incredulous; there 
are many who think practical considerations alone rule the 
efforts of men — profit in trade, the almighty dollar, the 
balance of bookkeeping, or the checks in the counting house. 
There are many who think that this is all there is to life, and 
that he is an idle dreamer and an insincere orator who talks 
of the constancy of international friendship, who talks of 
love of country rising above the love of material things, who 
talks of sentiment as controlling the affairs of men. That 
may be true so far as their own short and narrow lives are 
concerned; but it is not an idle dream that the world through 
the course of ages is growing up from material to spiritual, to 
moral, and to intellectual life. It is not an idle dream that 
moral influences are gradually, steadily in the course of cen- 
turies taking the place of brute force in the control of the 
affairs of men. Sentiment rules the world today — the feel- 
ings of the great masses of mankind; the attractions and 
repulsions that move the millions rule the world today; and 
as generation succeeds generation progress is ever from the 
material to the moral. We cannot see it in a day; we cannot 
see it in a single lifetime, as we cannot see the movements of 
the tide. We see the waves, but the tide moves on imper- 
ceptibly. The progress, the steady and irresistible progress 
of civilization is ever onwards. 

Mr. Chairman, and you, Senor Zorilla de San Martin, in 
your eloquent, your more than eloquent, your poetic words, 



URUGUAY 71 

do honor to the idea of peace and justice and friendship and 
the rule of moral qualities in the relations of nations. When 
you do honor to the representative of that idea you are doing 
your work in your day and generation to advance the great 
cause that proceeds through the ages to the better and higher 
life of mankind. We are nothing; our lives are but as 
moments; our personal work is inappreciable in this world; 
but slowly, imperceptibly, we, each individually, add a little 
to or detract a Httle from human rights, human liberty, 
human justice. 

I do not know how sufficiently to thank you, to thank the 
people of Montevideo, for all that you and they have done for 
me and my family during our brief — our all too brief — 
visit here. I believe that your kindness, your generous hos- 
pitality, will find response in the breasts of my countrymen; 
I believe that it will be an example to the people of South 
America and of North America; I believe that it will be 
evidence to the whole world that the ideas of friendship — of 
international friendship and courtesy — rule here in Uruguay; 
that Uruguay is a part of the great brotherhood of man, not 
selfish, but heart open to the best and brightest influences of 
humanity, doing her part in her time to advance the cause 
of civilization. I know that when tomorrow morning we sail 
away from INIontevideo we shall all carry with us the most 
delightful visions of a fair and bright land, of a white city and 
a beautiful bay; memories of hospitality and friendship, 
and memories of the most beautiful women. We can never 
repay you, for your hospitahty has been of the kind that asks 
for no payment; it has been true hospitality. We can only 
thank you, and thank you we do now and thank j^ou we shall 
continue to do as long as we live. 



ARGENTINA 

BUENOS AYRES 
Address of Honorable Emilio Mitre 

In Reference to the Visit of Mr. Root, in the Chamber of Deputies 
July 4, 1906 

This speech, delivered before Mr. Root reached Buenos Ayres, had an intimate 
relation to his reception. 

WITHIN a few weeks, Mr. President, Buenos Ayres will 
receive the visit of an eminent personality of the 
United States, Mr. Elihu Root, who is discharging in that 
country the duties of Secretary of State. 

The Executive of the nation, having official knowledge of 
the visit of Mr. Root, has already taken measures to enter- 
tain him and to make his sojourn in the Argentine Republic 
agreeable; but it has appeared to me, Mr. President, that the 
Chamber of Deputies should itself spontaneously take an 
initiative in this manifestation, in view of the personaHty of 
the man and the country he represents. 

The United States are for us, as is well known, the cradle 
of our democratic institutions; we are bound to them by 
those ties of friendship and of interest that are known to all 
and which it would be superfluous to enumerate; but apart 
from this, there exists between that country and ours historic 
bonds that secure our profound sympathies. 

It is beneficial from time to time to ascend the currents of 
history in order to gather the lessons of the past which may 
serve us as a guide in our constant march into the future. 
When we study in its annals the action of the Government 
of the United States in the epoch of Argentine independence, 
we encounter demonstrations of a solicitude, of an affection, 

75 



74 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

of a solidarity, of a participation in the struggles of those 
heroic times, so marked that the Argentine spirit neces- 
sarily feels itself impressed with the sentiment of intense 
gratitude and the necessity of repaying in some way those 
manifestations now somewhat forgotten. 

It is of importance, Mr, President, that our people should 
know well the other peoples with whom they exchange prod- 
ucts, manufactures, and ideas, especially when, in respect 
to the latter, those that they receive surpass in quantity those 
they give. And if there is any country that the Argentine 
people need to know well, any people, in its history, in its 
methods, in its sentiments, and in its intentions, it is the 
United States of America, the elder sister, the forerunner, 
and the model. 

In the epoch of our independence, Mr. President, the 
public life of the United States was constantly interested in 
the vicissitudes of the struggle that these peoples waged for 
their independence on both slopes of the Andes and in the 
regions of Venezuela. If you read the messages of the Presi- 
dents of the United States you find in them, year after year, 
words that prove the interest of that country in the destiny 
of these countries. At a date as early as 1811, a message of 
President Madison contained phrases full of sympathy for the 
great communities which were struggling for their liberty in 
this part of the world; and the attention of Congress was 
called to the necessity of being prepared to enter into relations 
of government to government with them, as soon as their 
independence should be sanctioned. 

From the time in which Monroe, the author of the famous 
doctrine, assumed the presidency of the republic, in all the 
messages at the opening of Congress, there is a distinct 
reference to the struggle of these nations for their indepen- 
dence, and in particular to the conflict that developed in the 
Rio de la Plata and the victorious progress of the arms of 



ARGENTINA 75 

Buenos Ayres on this and on the other side of the mountains 
and on the plateau of Bolivia. 

In all these documents reference is made to independence 
as a probable fact, which must necessarily at that time have 
exerted an influence in favor of the cause of the patriots; and 
often the declaration was repeated that, the colonies being 
emancipated, the United States did not seek and would not 
accept from them any commercial advantage that was not 
also offered to all other nations. 

These manifestations which emanated from the Govern- 
ment and reflected the movement of public opinion, found 
eloquent exponents in Congress also. 

In the records of the American Congress of 1817, one year 
after the declaration of independence by the Congress of 
Tucuman, a famous debate is recorded, begun by Henry 
Clay, the celebrated orator, who pleaded the cause of Argen- 
tine independence in the most enthusiastic terms. In this 
debate a Representative from New York also took a promi- 
nent part; this Representative bore the same name as the 
envoy whom we are to receive from the United States of 
America, Mr. Root. 

Spain had complained of the expeditions that were fitted 
out in ports of the United States to foment American revolu- 
tion. The Government was tolerant with these infractions 
of neutrahty; popular sympathy made the condemnation of 
such conspirators impossible. Spain, with whom the United 
States had relations of great importance, and with whom 
they were negotiating the cession of Florida, had protested 
to the Government against these expeditions of its rebellious 
subjects. The President, forced to do so, had sent to Con- 
gress a message requesting the enactment of a law of neu- 
trality. Clay and Root opposed it ; and the latter said that it 
was worth while to go to war with Spain if a demonstration 
m favor of the liberty and independence of those countries 



76 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

could be made. Later, during the administration of John 
Quincy Adams, these manifestations of the American Gov- 
ernment in favor of Argentine independence are met with on 
every page of the records of Congress. In 1818, the first 
discussion took place in the American Congress — a concrete 
discussion on the necessity of recognizing Argentine inde- 
pendence. Henry Clay was, as always, the leader of this 
discussion, following up the movements which, with extra- 
ordinary zeal, he had made at reunions, in the press, and in 
Congress. He delivered a speech that it is impossible for one 
to read without feeling his spirit moved on observing the 
solicitude, the interest, with which at that early date this 
apostle of democracy expressed himself in regard to the 
struggle of these peoples to gain their independence. 

All, without exception, pronounced themselves in favor of 
the independence of these peoples, which they recognized in 
principle. But a parliamentary question of privilege was 
raised, as to the prerogative of the Executive, it being 
alleged that the initiative, proposed by Clay, of naming a 
minister to these countries, encroached upon the functions 
of the Executive when the latter believed it wise to send 
simply agents. On this question opinion was divided, but 
not a single vote was cast that did not express the warmest 
sympathy with the cause of the patriots. 

While such was the attitude of the American Congress, in 
the press and in popular meetings manifestations of adhesion 
to the cause of the South American independence appeared 
at every moment. But above all, the place where traces of 
this determined action of the Government of the United 
States in favor of Argentine independence are to be found is 
in the records of the State Department at Washington, in 
which reference is made to the activity of its representative 
in London, at that time the famous statesman, Richard 
Rush. Rush was the minister of the United States in Lon- 



ARGENTINA 77 

don from the end of 1817, when he left the post of Secretary 
of State. He began negotiations immediately with Lord 
Castlereagh, Prime Minister of England, to induce the British 
Foreign Office to enter upon a policy of frank adhesion to the 
emancipation of these countries from the dominion of Spain. 
There we see, Mr. President, how united the action of the 
United States was in this movement, inspired by the most 
sincere democratic desires, by a true love of liberty. 

The Prime Minister of England received Mr. Rush*s pro- 
posals coldly. England had been appealed to by Spain to 
mediate between her and the Holy Alliance, in order to obtain 
the submission of the rebellious provinces; and England had 
indicated the advisability of acceding to this reintegration of 
Spanish dominion, on the basis of the return of these coun- 
tries to a state of dependence, with the condition of a general 
amnesty. 

In the conference between Lord Castlereagh and Minister 
Rush, the latter positively declared that the United States 
could never contribute to such retrogression, and that the 
aims of their Government favored the recognition of the 
complete independence of America. This was in 1818. 

It would occupy much time, Mr. President, but would not 
be without interest, to review in detail all the negotiations 
entered into by the North American representative in 
London, from the time of Lord Castlereagh to that of 
Canning, who succeeded him. 

In February, 1819, Rush notified Castlereagh that the 
Washington Government considered that the new South 
American states had established the position obtained by the 
victory of their arms, and that President Monroe had given 
an exequatur to a consul from Buenos Ayres, and was resolved 
at all hazards to recognize Argentine independence. Lord 
Castlereagh declared himself openly at variance with the 
views of the Government of the United States, and said that 



78 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Great Britain had done all that was possible to terminate the 
strife between Spain and her colonies, but always on the 
basis of the restoration of the dominion of the former. In 
1819, then, the United States were the only nation that 
insisted upon asserting the independence of our country. 

Thanks to their attitude, all the attempts begun by the Holy 
Alliance to suppress the movement for emancipation failed. 

The death of Lord Castlereagh did not change the situa- 
tion. Even the acts of Canning, if examined, and if the 
negotiations of the then American minister are analyzed, 
leave an impression of opposition, because that great British 
Minister, who, according to history, clinched as it were the 
independence of this country with his celebrated declaration, 
was not always of the same way of thinking; and it was 
necessary for the minister of the United States to inculcate 
in him the policy of his country in order that he should decide 
to adopt a policy openly favorable to South American 
independence. Such is the finding of the most accurate of 
Argentine historians. 

On March 8, 1882, President Monroe sent to the Congress 
of the United States his celebrated message proposing the 
recognition of the Argentine independence. In that message 
the President renewed his assurances of sympathy for the 
cause of Buenos Ayres, and confirmed the entire disin- 
terestedness with which his Government espoused the cause 
of the political integrity of the youthful nation. The House 
of Representatives voted the recognition of Argentine inde- 
pendence unanimously, except for one vote — that of Repre- 
sentative Garnett, who declared that he did not object to the 
recognition, but that he considered it unnecessary, and he 
cited in support of his view an opinion of Rivadavia. The 
United States was, then, the first country after Portugal 
(which through motives of special interest had recognized 
our independence), to make a similar recognition; and 



ARGENTINA 79 

England, which followed the United States, did not do so 
until three years later, January 1, 1825. 

Even after the recognition of Argentine independence by 
the United States, conferences continued to be held in 
Europe to establish the regime of the dominion of the mother 
country over the already independent colonies. Then new 
conferences took place with Canning, in which the minister 
of the United States confirmed anew the policy of his country 
in the matter of the final recognition of the independence of 
this republic. During that period, a document appeared that 
emanated from John Quincy Adams, addressed to Rush, in 
which he declined to enter into the plan for convoking a con- 
gress intended to treat of the questions of South America, 
and stated that the United States would never attend such a 
congress unless the South American republics were first 
invited. 

To accentuate the attitude of his Government, Mr. Adams 
adds that if the congress were to take place, with intent 
hostile to the new republics, the United States would 
solemnly protest against it and its calamitous consequences. 

The systematic and persistent action of the United States 
ended by determining in Canning a policy favorable to South 
American independence, and opposed to the intervention of 
any foreign power in the destinies of the new republics. 

Great Britain and the United States once in accord, after 
negotiations in which Jefferson and Madison united their 
counsel to that of President Monroe, these two patriots 
expressing themselves in terms of moving eloquence in favor 
of the cause of emancipation, the question was settled forever. 

Some months afterward, December 2, 1823, President 
Monroe consummated his action by sending to Congress the 
message that contains the enunciation of his famous doctrine. 
"America for the Americans", Mr. President, was a formula 
that, as I understand it, meant the final consecration of the 



80 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

indopcndcnce of the American nations; it was the voice of 
the most powerful of them all, proclaiming to the world that 
conquest in the domain of this America was at an end; it was 
notification to the conquering powers of Europe that they 
should not extend themselves to these continents because this 
extensive territory was all occupied by free nations, outside 
of whose sovereignty not an inch was vacant. 

The independence of these republics having been settled 
on the field of battle by the sole force of the republics, the 
declaration of the American President was the culminating 
act of that grand epic. For the United States it is a record 
of honor; for Europe it is an ultimatum. 

The Monroe Doctrine exists today with all the force of a law 
of nations, and no country of Europe has dared to dispute it. 

It is fitting, Mr. President, to appreciate exactly the mean- 
ing of this great act, of the splendid attitude, more fertile for 
the peace of the earth and for its progress than all the con- 
ventions that European nations have arranged from time to 
time in order to determine their quarrels. ''The American 
President, in formulating this doctrine, decreed peace be- 
tween Europe and America, which seemed destined, the 
former to assault always for conquest, the latter to fight 
always to defend its frontiers. In short, the Monroe Doctrine 
has been the veto on war between Europe and America; in 
its shadow these youthful nations have grown until today 
they are sujQBciently strong to proclaim the same doctrine as 
the emblem on their shield. And the most glorious char- 
acteristic of this doctrine is that it is a dictate of civilization, 
in the nature of a magnificent hymn of peace, which can be 
chanted at the same time by the European and the Ameri- 
can nations, because it avoided that permanent contention 
which would have subvened if the system of conquest that 
Europe has developed in regard to certain nations had been 
implanted here in the territory of South America. 



ARGENTINA 81 

Well, Mr. President, he who is coming to visit us is a con- 
spicuous citizen of that nation, and brings, as it is said — 
and I believe the Foreign OfBce already is informed in regard 
thereto — a message of peace and fraternity of utmost 
interest to our progress. We ought to take advantage of this 
opportunity to give this envoy a reception worthy of his 
people and worthy of himself. 

I have privately communicated to the Minister for Foreign 
Affairs the idea of this project, and I have had the pleasure 
to hear from his lips the most complete adherence to my 
declaration that in addition to a bill authorizing the expenses, 
there was the intention of preparing for Mr. Root a mani- 
festation emanating spontaneously from the Argentine Con- 
gress. The Minister believes this demonstration to be the 
necessary complement of the demonstration the national 
government is preparing for this envoy from the great 
republic. 

The historic facts I have recalled are a brief synthesis of an 
epoch sufficient to warrant the Argentine people in associat- 
ing themselves with the Government and lending to the event 
their warm interest. I am doubly pleased to have recalled 
this noble history on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of 
the independence of the great republic of the North. 

I believe that for these reasons, gentlemen, you will lend 
your support to this idea and fulfill the purpose for which it 
is presented. 

BANQUET AT THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE 

Speech of His Excellency Dr. J. Figueroa Alcorta 

President of Argentina 
At a Banquet given by him, August 14, 1906 

The American republics are at this moment tightening their 
traditional bonds at a congress of fraternity whose impor- 
tance has been indicated by the presence of our illustrious 



82 LATIN AIMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

guest, wlio passes across the continent as the herald of the 
civilization of a great people. 

The world's conscience being awakened by the progress of 
public thought, the members of the family of nations are 
trying to draw closer together for the development of their 
activities, without fetters or obstacles, under the olive branch 
of peace and the guaranty of reciprocal respect for their 
rights. 

International conferences are a happy manifestation of 
that tendency, because, in the contact of representatives of 
the various states, hindrances and prejudices are dissipated, 
and there is shown to exist in the collective mind a common 
aspiration for the teachings of liberty and justice. 

America gives a recurring example of such congresses of 
peace and law. As each one takes place it is evident that the 
attributes of sovereignty of the nations which constitute it 
are displayed more clearly; that free government is taking 
deeper root, that democratic solidarity is more apparent, 
and that force is giving way more freely to reason as the 
fundamental principle of society. 

The congress of Rio de Janeiro has that lofty significance. 
Its material, immediate consequences will be more or less 
important, but its moral result will be forever of transcendent 
benefit — a new departure and a step in advance in the 
development of liberal ideas in this part of the American 
Continent. 

Mr. Secretary of State, your country has taken gigantic 
strides in the march of progress until it occupies a position in 
the vanguard. It has set a proud and shining example to its 
sister nations. 

As in the dawn of their emancipation it recognized in them 
the conqueror's right to stand among the independent states 
of the earth, so likewise it later stimulated the high aspira- 
tion to establish a political system representing the popular 



ARGENTINA 83 

will, now inscribed in indelible characters in the preambles 
of American legislation. 

The Argentine Republic, after rude trials, has completed 
its constitutional regime, gathering experience and learm'ng 
from the great republic of the North. 

The general lines of our organization followed those of the 
Philadelphia convention, with the modifications imposed by- 
circumstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by 
the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who 
drafted the Aj-gentine constitution were inspired in their 
work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created 
the Constitution of the United States. 

Many of our political doctrines are derived from the writ- 
ings of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay; the spirit of Marshall 
and Taney are seen in the hearings of our tribunals; and 
even the children in our schools, where they learn to personify 
the republican virtues, the lore and sacrifice for country, 
respect for the rights of man, and the prerogatives of the 
citizen, speak the name of George Washington with that of 
the foremost Argentines. 

Our home institutions being closely united and the shad- 
ows on the international horizon having disappeared, the 
Argentine Republic can occupy itself in fraternizing with 
other nations; and, like the United States, she aspires to 
strengthen the ties of friendship sanctioned by history and 
by the ideal philanthropy common to free institutions. 

Your visit will have, in this aspect, great results. We have 
invited you to visit our territory in order to link the two 
countries more intimately; and your presence here indicates 
that this noble object will be realized, inspired as it is by the 
convenience of mutual interests and the sharing of noble 
aims. 

You are a messenger of the ideals of brotherhood, and as 
such you are welcome to the Argentine Republic. 



84 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

I salute you, in the name of the Government and the 
people who have received you, as the genuine representative 
of your country, with that sincere desire for friendship which 
is loyally rooted in the national sentiment of Argentina. 

Gentlemen: To the United States of America; to its illus- 
trious President, Theodore Roosevelt; to the Secretary of 
State of North America, Honorable Elihu Root ! 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you, sir, for your kind welcome and for your words 
of appreciation. I thank you for myself; I thank you for 
that true and noble gentleman who holds in the United 
States of America the same exalted office which you hold here. 
I thank you in behalf of the millions of citizens in the United 
States. When your kind and courteous invitation reached 
me, I was in doubt whether the long absence from official 
duties would be justified; but I considered that your expres- 
sion of friendship imposed upon me something more than an 
opportunity for personal gratification; it imposed upon me a 
duty. It afforded an opportunity to say something to the 
Government and the people of Argentina which would justly 
represent the sentiments and the feelings of the people of the 
United States toward you all. We do not know as much as 
we ought in the United States; we do not know as much as I 
would like to feel we know; but we have a traditional right to 
be interested in Argentina. I thought today, when we were 
all involved in the common misfortune, at the time of my 
landing, that, after all, the United States and Argentina were 
not simply fair-weather friends. We inherit the right to be 
interested in Argentina, and to be proud of Argentina. From 
the time when Richard Rush was fighting, from the day when 
James Monroe threw down the gauntlet of a weak republic, 
as we were then, in defense of your independence and rights 
— from that day to this the interests and the friendship of 



ARGENTINA 85 

the people of the United States for the Argentine Republic 
have never changed. We rejoice in your prosperity; we are \, 
proud of your achievements; we feel that you are justifying 
our faith in free government, and self-government; that you 
are maintaining our great thesis which demands the posses- 
sion, the enjoyment, and the control of the earth by the 
people who inhabit it. We have followed the splendid persis- 
tency with which you have fought against the obstacles that 
stood in your path, with the sympathy that has come from 
similar struggles at home. Lilie you, we have had to develop 
the resources of a vast unpeopled land; like you, we have had 
to fight for a foothold against the savage Indians; like you, 
we have had conflicts of races for the possession of territory; 
like you, we have had to suffer war; like you, we have con- 
quered nature; and like you, we have been holding out our 
hands to the people of all the world, inviting them to come 
and add to our development and share our riches. 

We live under the same constitution in substance; we 
are maintaining and attempting to perfect ourselves in the 
application of the same principles of liberty and justice. So 
how can the people of the United States help feeling a friend- 
ship and sympathy for the people of Argentina ? I deemed 
it a duty to come, in response to your kind invitation to say 
this, to say that there is not a cloud in the sky of good under- ,' 
standing; there are no political questions at issue between 
Argentina and the United States; there is no thought of j 
grievance by one against the other; there are no old grudges' 
or scores to settle. We can rejoice in each other's prosperity; 
we can aid in each other's development; we can be proud 
of each other's successes without hindrance or drawback. 
And for the development of this sentiment in both countries, 
nothing is needed but more knowledge — that we shall know 
each other better; that not only the most educated and 
thoughtful readers of our two countries shall become familiar 



8G LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

with the history of the other, but that the entire body of the 
people shall know what are the relations and what are the 
feelings of the other country. I should be glad if the people 
of Argentina — not merely you, Mr. President; not merely 
my friend, the minister of foreign affairs; not merely the 
gentlemen connected with the Government, but the people of 
Argentina — might know that the people of the United 
States are their friends, as I know the people of Argentina are 
friends of the United States. 

I have come to South America with no more specific object 
than I have stated. Our traditional policy in the United 
States of America is to make no alliances. It was inculcated 
by Washington; it has been adhered to by his successors ever 
since. But, Mr. President, the alliance that comes from 
unwritten, unsealed instruments, as that from the conven- 
tion, signed and ratified with all formalities, is of vital con- 
sequence. We make no political alliances, but we make an 
alliance with all our sisters in sentiment and feeling, in the 
pursuit of liberty and justice, in mutual helpfulness; and in 
that spirit 1 beg to return to you and to your Government and 
the people of this splendid and wonderful country my sincere 
thanks for the welcome you have given me and my country 
in my person. 

RECEPTION BY AMERICAN AND ENGLISH RESIDENTS 
Speech of Mr. Francis B. Purdie 

At St. George's Hall, August 16, 1906 

Americans resident in Buenos Ayres and in the Argentine 
Republic are sensible of the honor you have done them by 
accepting their invitation for this evening, and they appre- 
ciate most highly the courtesy of the Argentine Government, 
whose distinguished guest you are, in allowing them this 
coveted privilege. As Americans we welcome you to Buenos 
Ayres, and it is our earnest hope that your visit here will 



ARGENTINA 87 

bind more closely the ties of friendship which unite the great 
republics of the North and of the South, and that the knowl- 
edge you will gain of this great country and of its magnificent 
resources will lead to more familiar intercourse and to that 
good understanding which should exist between nations 
governed by like principles, living under constitutions 
framed in a like spirit, and having similar national aims. 

This gathering is the result of a public meeting called 
immediately after it was learned that you had accepted the 
invitation of the Argentine Government to visit this city. 
It was a meeting typically American, which had no dividing 
line on the question that our Secretary of State was a man 
whom we would all delight to honor. The executive com- 
mittee of the North American Society of the River Plata was 
intrusted with the arrangements. We believe you should 
know something of that society. Organized only last 
November, it embraces in its membership practically every 
American in Buenos Ayres. For its age, I am not afraid to 
say that it is the most flourishing social organization that has 
ever been established in this country. What is the object of 
the society ? Not, I conceive, such as will arouse antagonism 
or jealousy in the mind of any man. As set forth in the pre- 
amble to its constitution, it is: " To keep alive the love of 
country and foster the spirit of patriotism, . . . and for such 
other purposes as will advance the interests of our country, 
encourage and maintain friendly relations with the country 
of our residence, and assist in promoting closer commercial 
union between the United States and the countries of the 
River Plata." 

It is an organization framed in the spirit of our beloved 
Lincoln, " with malice toward none." The society has no 
political aim or purpose. It plots for nothing but the well- 
being of all, and wishes for nothing less than the prosperity 
of the home land and the land of our residence. Its members 



88 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

are imbued with that spirit which is the characteristic Ameri- 
can attitude toward all nations and peoples, the spirit of 
" live and let live." Apart from all that your visit may mean 
in international comity, it means much to us here; for you, 
Mr. Secretary, are the very living embodiment of the spirit 
to which 1 have referred, that broad Americanism which 
does not seek to advantage itself by intruding on the rights 
of others. Every speech made by you since leaving home has 
been an inspiration to us, and has strengthened us in our 
determination to live up to the principles upon which our 
society is founded. 

But it is not alone the Americans in Buenos Ayres who 
have come here tonight to greet you, and who have wished 
to do you honor. Your kinsmen from across the sea are here 
in their hundreds, for when it became known that such a 
reception as this was contemplated, the requests for the 
privilege of joining with us were so great in number that the 
sincerity of the English-speaking people could not be ques- 
tioned, and the American society welcomed the opportunity 
to invite as its guests as many of the representative British 
and other English-speaking residents of Buenos Ayres as 
this hall can hold; and there is represented here every impor- 
tant public interest and private enterprise in this republic, 
and I have the honor, in their name as well as in the name of 
your countrymen, to assure you that you are in the house 
of your friends. 

I have told you, Mr. Root, what your countrymen feel 
about your coming here; 1 have referred to the cordial 
sympathy shown by the English-speaking residents; and it is 
with feelings of genuine pleasure that I now make reference 
to the attitude of the Argentine Government and the Argen- 
tine people. This reference will not be my personal view 
alone; it is the expression of the feelings of representative 
Americans in this city which has been voiced at every meet- 



ARGENTINA 89 

ing we have held within the past few weeks. The Argentine 
people are, and wish to remain, the friends of the United 
States. Our committees have had the privilege of holding 
interviews with high officials of the government, with 
various committees of the leading citizens; and we have 
been convinced of the genuine nature of the reception pre- 
pared for you. This is too proud a nation to pretend that 
which it does not feel, and the history of Buenos Ayres will 
convince any student that this city has never been afraid to 
speak out, to applaud or condemn as its judgment dictated. 
The government officials have been sincerely cordial, and 
they have not been content merely to express their wish to 
give us every friendly help; they have, apart from theu* own 
magnificent preparations, given the Americans here material 
assistance. 

The world owes much of its progress to opposing views, 
and the healthiest nations have the strongest political parties 
taking differing views upon questions of national policy, and 
these parties reach the public by means of the newspapers. 
The Argentine Repubhc is not an exception, but I doubt if 
there has ever been a theme upon which the press of this 
country has been so united as that honor should be shown to 
you. I speak for Americans when I say that in the Argentine 
Repubhc we have found a home where absolute freedom is 
ours, — freedom in every walk of life; freedom for con- 
science; freedom to live, move, and have our being as God 
and our own wills may lead us. There are Argentines here 
tonight who are not one whit behind us in their enthusiasm 
for you and for all that you represent, and there is a group 
here of Argentines who have graduated from American col- 
leges, who wish to say to you that next to their own country 
they revere the United States of America. You now know, 
Mr. Root, what friends you have before you, and we all bid 
you welcome, thrice welcome, to Buenos Ayres. 



90 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Reply of Mr. Root 

Mr. Chairman, my countrymen, my countrywomen, my 
friends from the land whence my fathers came, I need not say 
that I am glad to meet you. No one far away from his own 
land needs to be told that the looks, faces, the sound of 
voice, of one's own countrymen are a joy to the wanderer in 
strange lands. Yet I do not find this such a strange land. I 
find here so many things to remind me of home, so many 
things that are like our own country, that it seems a little 
like coming home. Such is the similarity in conditions, in 
spirit, in purpose; such is the impress of the same institutions 
and the same principles, that I cannot feel altogether a 
stranger; and when I meet you here at home almost I feel 
the warmth of my own fireside. 

I am glad to meet you because I think that perhaps to 
many of you who have been long in this distant land I may 
bring pleasant memories of cities and farms and homes, left 
behind many a year ago. But I hope that the new home you 
have found, the new duties you have taken up, have made 
you happy, prosperous, useful, full of the ambitions, activi- 
ties, and satisfactions of life. There have been great changes 
in the United States of America — of North America, per- 
haps I must call it, — since most of you left your old homes. 
WTien you, Mr. President, left us, we were a debtor nation; 
we were borrowing money from Europe to develop our own 
resources, to build up our own country. Most of the money 
was coming from our English friends. That capital built up 
our railways to make possible the wonderful development 
that has made the United States what it is. We had no 
capital, no time, no energy, to devote to anything but the 
task before us, to conquer our West and to develop our 
empty lands. In that distant day, when Henry Clay and 
John Quincy Adams espoused the cause of the infant repub- 



ARGENTINA 91 

lies of South America, we could have no relations with 
them but those of political sjTnpathy, because we were too 
concentrated in the work that lay before us at home. Twenty 
years ago, when that far-seeing and sanguine statesman, Mr. 
Blaine, inaugurated his South American policy and brought 
about the first American Conference at Washington, and the 
establishment of the Bureau of American Republics, we were 
still a debtor nation, with no surplus capital, and engrossed 
in doing our work at home. It was still impossible for us 
to have any relations with South America, except those of 
political sympathy. 

But since Mr. Blaine, times have changed. We have paid 
our debts; we have become a creditor rather than a debtor 
nation. We have for the first time within the last ten years 
begun to accumulate surplus capital, and it has accumulated 
with a wonderful rapidity, — a surplus capital to enable us to 
go out and establish new relations with the rest of the world. 
We now are beginning to be in a position where we can take 
the same relations towards other countries that England took 
towards us. We have paid our debts to England; the use of 
her capital in developing the United States has resulted in 
great advantage to both of us; and with the payment of the 
debt there has been left a warm and, I believe, enduring 
friendship between England and the United States. I 
should like to see the same kind of friendship between 
the United States and South America. I should like to see 
the great surplus capital which we are accumulating in the 
United States of North America turn southwards, to see it 
used to develop the vast resources of this country, with 
mutual advantage to both, so that when the time comes in 
the future, as it will come, when the people of Argentina, 
with their resources developed, with their population in- 
creased, have accumulated all the capital they need and paid 
their debts, we shall have had our share both in their develop- 



92 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

ment and in their prosperity, and an enduring friendship 
may exist between us. 

Now it has seemed to me, sir, that possibly the opportunity 
afforded by the kind and courteous invitation of the Argen- 
tine Government to visit this country might enable me to do 
something to this end, just at this juncture when a change in 
the attitude of the United States toward the rest of the world 
is taking place, when the change from the debtor to the credi- 
tor nation, is made; from the borrower of money to develop 
resources, to a country with surplus capital to send out to the 
world; — it seemed to me possible that I might by this visit 
help to establish the relations which I should like to see exist- 
ing. I should like to be able to qualify myself to say in the 
most public way that this is a land to which the poor of all 
the world, who have enterprise without money, can come and 
find homes and prosperity, so that by the thousands, by the 
millions, they may come from the Old World and build up 
Argentina as they have built up the United States. I feel 
able to say that this is a shore to which the emigrants from 
the Old World may come with a certainty of finding homes, 
occupations, and opportunities for prosperity; that it is a 
country to which the capital of the United States may come 
with the certainty that it will be secure, will be protected, 
and will find profitable employment. I look forward to the 
time when the wonderful development that is going on here 
now — not confined alone to this country, but progressing 
here with an amazing rapidity, — will be as great a wonder 
to the world as the advance which has taken the United 
States of North America, expanding from the feeble fringe of 
colonists along the Atlantic shore to a great nation of eighty 
millions, stretching from ocean to ocean. Argentina will 
take some of our markets from us, but what are they ? They 
will be markets she is entitled to; and with her prosperity, 
and with the right understanding and relations between the 



ARGENTINA 93 

two countries, our commercial relations with her will more 
than take the place of the markets she takes away from us. 
We have nothing to fear in the growing prosperity of Argen- 
tina. We have no cause but for rejoicing in her prosperity; 
no cause but to aid her in every way m our power in her on- 
ward progress; and that I believe to be the sincere desire of 
the whole of the people of the United States. 

Mr. President, a heavy responsibility rests upon the citizen 
of our country who Hves in a foreign land. We can misbehave 
at home and it makes little difference; but every American 
citizen in a foreign land, every American citizen in the Argen- 
tine Republic, is the representative of his country there. He 
needs no commission; no power can prevent his holding a 
commission to represent before all the people of Argentina 
the character of his own countrymen. You represent our 
beloved land to the people of Argentina. What you are they 
will believe us to be. As they study your character and con- 
duct their estimate of us rises, and it is with the greatest 
pleasure that I find here among this people whom I respect 
so highly, whose good opinion for my coimtry I so greatly 
desire, a body of Americans, a body of my countrymen, so 
worthy, so estimable, so high in reputation, so well fitted to 
maintain the standard of the United States of America, high, 
pure, unsullied, worthy of all honor. 

BANQUET AT THE OPERA HOUSE 

Speech of Dr. Luis M. Drago 

President of the Reception Committee 

August 17, 1906 

The large gathering here assembled, representative of all that 
Buenos Ayres has of the most notable in science, letters, 
industry, and commerce, has conferred on me the signal 
honor of designating me to offer this banquet to the eminent 
minister of one of the greatest nations of the earth, a nation 



94 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

linked to us from the very beginning by many and very real 
sentiments of moral and political solidarity. This country 
has not forgotten that in the trying times of the colonial 
emancipation, our fathers could rely on the sympathy and 
the warm and disinterested adhesion of the American people, 
our predecessors and our guides in the paths of liberty. The 
thrilling utterances of Henry Clay defending our cause when 
everything appeared to threaten our revolution, have never 
been surpassed in their noble eloquence; and it was due to 
the generosity and foresight of their great statesmen that the 
United States were the first to receive us with open arms as 
their equals in the community of sovereign nations. 

The spiritual affinity thus happily established has gone on 
strengthening itself almost imperceptibly ever since by the 
reproduction of institutions and legal customs. 

Our charter was inspired by the American Constitution 
and acts through the operation of similar laws. The great 
examples of the Union are also our examples; and being 
sincere lovers of liberty we rejoice in the triumphs (which in 
a certain sense we consider our own) of the greatest of 
democratic nations. 

George Washington is, for us, one of the great figures of 
history, the tutelar personality, the supreme model, a proto- 
type of abnegation, honor, and wisdom; and there is an 
important region in the province of Buenos Ayres bearing 
the name of Lincoln, as a homage to the austere patriotism 
of that statesman and martyr. The names of Jefferson, 
Madison, and Quincy Adams are household words with us; 
and in our parliamentary debates and popular assemblies 
mention is frequently made of the statesmen, the orators, 
and the judges of the great sister republic. 

There thus exist, honorable sir, a long-established friend- 
ship, an intercommunion of thought and purpose which draw 
peoples together more closely, intimately, and indissolubly 



ARGENTINA 95 

than can be accomplished by the formulae — often barren — 
of the foreign offices. 

And the moment is certainly propitious for drawing closer 
the bonds of international amity which your excellency's 
visit puts in relief, and which have found such eloquent 
expression in the Pan American Congress of Rio de Janeiro. 
Enlightened patriotism has understood at last that on this 
continent, with its immense riches and vast unexplored 
regions, power and wealth are not to be looked for in conquest 
and displacements, but in collaboration and solidarity, which 
will people the wilderness and give the soil to the plow. It 
has understood, moreover, that America, by reason of the 
nationaUties of which it is composed, of the nature of the rep- 
resentative institutions which they have adopted, by the very 
character of their people, separated as they have been from 
the conflicts and complications of European governments, 
and even by the gravitation of peculiar circumstances and 
events, has been constituted a separate political factor, a 
new and vast theater for the development of the human race, 
which will serve as a counterpoise to the great civilizations of 
the other hemisphere, and so maintain the equilibrium of the 
world. 

It is consequently our sacred duty to preserve the integrity 
of America, material and moral, against the menaces and 
artifices, very real and effective, that unfortunately surround 
it. It is not long since one of the most eminent of living 
jurisconsults of Great Britain denounced the possibility of 
the danger. " The enemies of hght and freedom," he said, 
*' are neither dead nor sleeping; they are vigilant, active, 
militant, and astute." And it was in obedience to that 
sentiment of common defense that in a critical moment the 
Argentine Republic proclaimed the impropriety of the 
forcible collection of public debts by European nations, not 
as an abstract principle of academic value or as a legal rule of 



96 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

universal application outside of this continent (which it is not 
incumbent on us to maintain), but as a principle of American 
dii)lomacy which, whilst being founded on equity and justice, 
has for its exclusive object to spare the peoples of this con- 
tinent the calamities of conquest, disguised under the mask 
of financial interventions, in the same way as the traditional 
policy of the United States, without accentuating superiority 
or seeking preponderance, condemned the oppression of the 
nations of this part of the world and the control of their 
destinies by the great powers of Europe. The dreams and 
Utopias of today are the facts and commonplaces of tomorrow 
and the principle proclaimed must sooner or later prevail. 

The gratitude we owe to the nations of Europe is indeed 
very great, and much we still have to learn from them. We 
are the admirers of their secular institutions; more than 
once we have been moved by their great ideals, and under no 
circumstances whatsoever should we like to sever or to 
weaken the links of a long-established friendship. But we 
want, at the same time, and it is only just and fair, that the 
genius and tendency of our democratic communities be 
respected. They are advancing slowly, it is true; struggling 
at times and occasionally making a pause, but none the 
less strong and progressive for all that, and already showing 
the unequivocal signs of success in what may be called the 
most considerable trial mankind has ever made of the 
republican system of government. 

In the meantime, to reach their ultimate greatness and 
have an injfluence in the destinies of the world, these nations 
only require to come together and have a better knowledge 
of each other, to break up the old colonial isolation, and 
realize the contraction of America, as what is called the con- 
traction of the world has always been effected by the anni- 
hilation of distance through railways, telegraphs, and the 



ARGENTINA 97 

thousand and one means of communication and interchange 
at the disposal of modern civilization. 

The increase of commerce and the public fortune will be 
brought about in this way; but such results as concern only 
material prosperity will appear unimportant when compared 
with the blessings of a higher order which are sure to follow, 
when, realizing the inner meaning of things, and stimulated 
by spiritual communion, these peoples meet each other as 
rivals only in the sciences and arts, in literature and govern- 
ment, and most of all in the practice of virtues, which are the 
best ornament of the state and the foundation stone of all 
enduring grandeur of the human race. 

Gentlemen : 

To the United States, the noblest and the greatest of 
democratic nations ! 

To Mr. Roosevelt, the President of transcendental initia- 
tive and strenuous life ! 

To his illustrious minister, our guest, the highest and most 
eloquent representative of American solidarity, for whom I 
have not words suflSciently expressive to convey all the 
pleasure we feel in receiving him, and how we honor our- 
selves by having him in our midst. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you for the kind and friendly words you have 
uttered. I thank you, and all of you for your cordiality and 
bounteous hospitality. As I am soon to leave this city, where 
I and my family have been welcomed so warmly and have 
been made so happy, let me take this opportunity to return 
to you and to the Government and to the people of Buenos 
Ayres our most sincere and heartfelt thanks for all your kind- 
ness and goodness to us. We do appreciate it most deeply, 
and we shall never forget it, shall never forget you — your 



98 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

friendly faces, your kind greetings, your beautiful homes, 
your noble spirit, and all that makes up the great and splen- 
did city of Buenos Ay res. 

It is with special pleasure, Mr. Chairman, that I have 
listened to that part of your speech which relates to the polit- 
ical philosophy of our times, and especially to the political 
philosophy most interesting to America. Upon the two sub- 
jects of special international interest to which you have 
alluded, I am glad to be able to declare myself in hearty and 
unreserved sympathy with you. ; The United States of 
America has never deemed it to be suitable that she should 
use her army and navy for the collection of ordinary contract 
debts of foreign governments to her citizens. For more than 
a century the State Department, the Department of Foreign 
Relations of the United States of America, has refused to 
take such action, and that has become the settled policy of 
our country. We deem it to be inconsistent with that respect 
for the sovereignty of weaker powers which is essential to 
their protection against the aggression of the strong. We 
deem the use of force for the collection of ordinary contract 
debts to be an invitation to abuses, in their necessary results 
far worse, far more baleful to humanity than that the debts 
contracted by any nation should go unpaid. We consider 
that the use of the army and navy of a great power to compel 
a weaker power to answer to a contract with a private indi- 
vidual, is both an invitation to speculation upon the necessi- 
ties of weak and struggling countries and an infringement 
upon the sovereignty of those countries, and we are now, as 
we always have been, opposed to it; and we believe that, 
perhaps not today nor tomorrow, but through the slow and 
certain process of the future, the world will come to the same 
opinion. 

It is with special gratification that I have heard from your 
lips so just an estimate of the character of that traditional 



ARGENTINA 99 

policy of the United States which bears the name of Presi- 
dent Monroe. When you say that it was " without accen- 
tuating superiority or seeking preponderance," that Monroe's 
declaration condemned the oppression of the nations of this 
part of the world and the control of their destinies by the 
great powers of Europe, you speak the exact historical truth. 
You do but simple justice to the purposes and the sentiments 
of Monroe and his compatriots and to the country of Monroe 
at every hour from that time to this. 

I congratulate you upon the wonderful opportunity that 
lies before you. Happier than those of us who were obliged 
in earlier days to conquer the wilderness, you men of Argen- 
tina have at your hands great, new forces for your use. 
Changes have come of recent years in the world which affect 
the working out of your problem. One is that through the 
comparative infrequency of war, of pestilence, of famine, 
through the increased sanitation of the world, the decrease 
of infant mortality by reason of better sanitation, the popu- 
lation of the world is increasing. Those causes which reduced 
population are being removed and the pressure of population 
is sending out wave after wave of men for the peopling of the 
vacant lands of the earth. Another change is, that through 
the wonderful activity of invention and discovery and organ- 
izing capacity during our lifetime, the power of mankind 
to produce wealth has been immensely increased. One man 
today, with machinery, with steam, with electricity, with all 
the myriads of appliances that invention and discovery have 
created, can produce more wealth, more of the things that 
mankind desires, than twenty men could have produced 
years ago; and the result is that vast accumulations of 
capital are massing in the world, ready to be poured out for 
the building up of the vacant places of the earth. For the 
utilization of these two great forces, men and money, you 
in Argentina have the opportunity of incalculable potential 



100 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

wealth, and you have the formative power in the spirit and 
the brain of your people. 

I went today to one of your great flour mills and to one of 
your great refrigerating plants. I viewed the myriad indus- 
tries that surround the harbor, the forests of masts, the 
thronged steamers. I was interested and amazed. It far 
exceeded my imagination and suggested an analogy to an 
incident in my past life. It was my fortune in the year when 
the war broke out between Prussia and France, to be travel- 
ling in Germany. Immediately upon the announcement of 
the war, maps of the seat of war were printed and posted in 
every shop window. The maps were maps of Germany, with 
a little stretch of France. Within a fortnight the armies had 
marched off the map. It seems to be so with Argentina. I 
have read books about Argentina. I have read magazine and 
newspaper articles; but within the last five years you have 
marched off the map. The books and magazines are all out 
of date. What you have done since they were written is 
much more than had been done before. They are no guide 
to the country. Nevertheless, with all your vast material 
activity, it seems to me that the most wonderful and interest- 
ing thing to be found here is the laboratory of life, where you 
are mixing the elements of the future race. Argentine, Eng- 
lish, German, Italian, French, and Spanish, and American 
are all being welded together to make the new type. It was 
the greatest satisfaction to me to go into the school and see 
that first and greatest agency, the children of all races in the 
first and most impressionable period of life, being brought 
together and acting and reacting on each other, and all tend- 
ing toward the new type, which will embody the character- 
istics of all; and to know that the system of schools in which 
this is being done was, by the wisdom of your great President 
Sarmiento, brought from my own country through his friend- 



ARGENTINA 101 

ship with the great leader of education in the United States 
of America — Horace Mann. 

Mr. Chairman, I should have been glad to see all these 
wonderflU things as an inconspicuous observer. It is quite 
foreign to my habits and to my nature to move through 
applauding throngs, accompanied by guards of honor; yet 
perhaps it is well that the idea which I represent should be 
applauded by crowds and accompanied by guards of honor. 
The pomp and circumstance of war attract the fancy of the 
multitude; the armored knight moves across the page of 
romance and of poetry and kindles the imagination of youth; 
the shouts of the crowd, the smiles of beauty, the admiration 
of youth, the gratitude of nations, the plaudits of mankind, 
follow the hero about whom the glamor of mihtary glory 
dims the eye to the destruction and death and human misery 
that follow the path of war. Perhaps it is well that some- 
times there should go to the herdsman on his lonely ranch, to 
the husbandman in his field, to the clerk in the counting-house 
and the shop, to the student at his books, to the boy in the 
street, the idea that there is honor to be paid to those quali- 
ties of mankind which rest upon justice, upon mercy, upon 
consideration for the rights of others, upon humanity, upon 
the patient and kindly spirit, upon all those exercises of the 
human heart which lead to happy homes, to prosperity, to 
learning, to art, to religion, to the things that dignify life and 
ennoble it and give it its charm and grace. 

We honor Washington as the leader of his country's 
forces in the war of independence; but that supreme patience 
which enabled him to keep the warring elements of his people 
at peace is a higher claim to the reverence of mankind than 
his superb military strategy. San Martin was great in his 
military achievements; his Napoleonic march across the 
Andes is entitled to be preserved in the history of military 



102 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

affairs so long as history is written; but the almost super- 
human self-abnegation with which he laid aside power and 
greatness that peace might give its strength to his people, 
was greater than his military achievements. The triumphant 
march of the conquering hero is admirable and to be greeted 
with huzzas, but the conquering march of an idea which 
makes for humanity is more admirable and more to be 
applauded. This is not theory; it is practical. It has to do 
with our affairs today; for we are now in an age of the 
world when not governors, not presidents, not congresses, but 
the people determine the issues of peace or war, of contro- 
versy or of quiet J I am an advocate of arbitration; I am an 
advocate of mediation; of ail the measures that tend toward 
bringing reasonable and cool judgment to take the place 
of war; but let us never forget that arbitration and media- 
tion — all measures of that description — are but the treat- 
ment of the symptoms and not the treatment of the cause of 
disease; and that the real cure for war is to get into the 
hearts of the people and lead them to a just sense of their 
rights and other people's rights, lead them to love peace and 
to hate war, lead them to hold up the hands of their govern- 
ments in the friendly commerce of diplomacy, rather than to 
urge them on to strife; and let there go to the herdsman and 
the husbandman and the merchant and the student and the 
boy in the street every influence which can tend toward that 
sweet reasonableness, that kindly sentiment, that breadth 
of feeling for humanity, that consideration for the rights of 
others, which lie at the basis of the peace of the world. 



CHILE 

SANTIAGO 

Speech of His Excellency JermXn Riesco 

President of the Repubuc 
At the Government House, September 1, 1906 

I GREET you and welcome you in the name of the people 
and of the Government of Chile, who receive your visit 
with the liveliest satisfaction. 

Your attendance at the congress of fraternity which the 
American republics have just held; your visit to the neigh- 
boring countries, which we have followed with the greatest 
interest; and your presence amongst us, upon the invitation 
which we had the honor of extending to you, are eloquent 
testimony of the high-minded intentions, which will neces- 
sarily produce much good for the progress and the devel- 
opment of America. 

In these moments we feel a most profound gratitude 
toward your country, toward your worthy President, and 
toward yourseK for the friendship and sympathy with which 
you have joined in the sorrow of Chile because of the disaster 
which has wounded Valparaiso and other cities of the 
repubhc. 

I wish that your stay in this country may be agreeable to 
you and your distinguished family. 

Reply of Mb. Root 

I THANK you, Mr. President, for your kind welcome and for 
your generous expressions, and I thank you for the courteous 
invitation which led to this visit on my part. After the great 
calamity which has befallen your country, I should have 
feared to intrude upon the mourning which is in so many 

103 



104 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Chilean homes, but I did not feel that I could pass by without 
calling upon you — upon the representative of the Chilean 
people — to express in person the deep sympathy and sor- 
row which I, and all my people, whom I represent, feel for 
your country and for the stricken and bereaved ones; and 
the earnest hope we have for the prompt and cheerful 
recovery of spirit and of confidence and of prosperity after 
the great misfortune. We know that the spirit and the 
strength of the people of Chile are adequate for the recovery, 
even from so great a disaster. No one in the world, ]Mr. 
President, can feel more deeply the misfortune that you 
have suffered than the people of the United States, because 
you know that in our country we have recently experienced 
just such a calamity. I am sure that nowhere in the world 
will you find so keen a sense of sjTnpathy as is there and 
as I now express. It may sometimes happen that in adver- 
sity stronger friendships arise than in prosperity; and I hope 
that although I come to bring to you an expression of the 
friendship of the United States of America for the republic 
of Chile now while the cloud rests upon you, the effect of 
the exchange of kind words and kinder feelings in this time 
may be greater, more permanent, and more lasting than they 
could have been when all were prosperous and happy. 

BANQUET OF THE PRESIDENT 

Speech of His Excellency Antonio Huneeus 

Minister for Foreign Affairs 
At the Moneda, September 2, 1906 

I EXTEND to you the welcome of the people and of the 
Government. Heartily do 1 say to you, in the name of all 
Chileans : Be welcome. 

We were preparing to entertain you in magnificent style, 
but it was the will of Providence to visit us with a bitter trial, 
so we are now receiving you in a modest manner. 



CHILE 105 

Come and see, sir, what we have suffered. Morally, we 
have suffered much; for several thousands of our brothers 
perished in the catastrophe of August 16. Materially speak- 
ing we lose the greater part of our principal port and of 
sev'eral cities of minor importance, together with the profits 
which cease in consequence. Behold now, sir, what remams 
to us and how we are rising. Our productive forces are alive 
and sound; agriculture, mining, and manufacturmg have 
scarcely suffered, and our saltpeter treasures contmue to 

exist 

PubHc order remained undisturbed; generally speaking, 
the reign of the law was maintained; the authorities fulfilled 
their duty; and the navy, glorious guardian of half our 
territory, which is the ocean, was saved intact. Therefore, 
all we sons of Chile are of cheerful heart. 

The virility of a country is worth more than the splendor 
of its monuments. It does not humihate us, therefore, to 
have you see houses and towns destroyed, for it was not a 
civil war or a foreign enemy which razed them to the ground, 
but a higher hand. It is rather a source of pride to us to have 
you witness the integrity and unity of the Chileans. 

The fortitude of our race and our good sense will cause us to 
rise again in a short time to a greater prosperity. 

You plainly see that ChHe is still entire, and that our 
misfortune was more painful than injurious. 

We did not, therefore, think for a moment that you might 
postpone your visit. On the contrary, we telegraphed to you 
a few hours after the earthquake : " Our home is demolished; 
but come, sir, for we are safe, calm, and diligent." 

Besides, the plain dignity of your character, which we knew, 
and the objects of your visit encouraged us to speak to you. 

You have come, most excellent sir, to offer your over- 
production to our consumers, and to ask a larger place for 
the Americans in the Chilean heart. 



106 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

You are going to obtain all that. But, besides this, Mr. 
Root, please bear to the sons of the United States, and 
especially to our brothers in misfortune at San Francisco, 
California, a sacred homage — the intense gratitude of 
the society and Government of Chile for the generous aid 
to our sufferers by which the Americans are proving to us 
that along with greatness of power they have greatness 
of heart. 

We knew of all this greatness. With a territory covering 
half a continent and nourished by every kind of riches, with 
a firm and impulsive character, with broad and far-reaching 
views along every channel which human activity can pursue, 
and endowed with a clear instinct of what is possible, the 
Americans have become useful and wealthy. 

They understood two essential things, namely, that 
government is not merely a pleasant and covetable ideal, but 
a fundamental necessity, and that the greatest value does 
not consist in traditions or fortune, but in personal merit. 
They therefore abolished every unjustified distinction of 
superiority and organized as a democracy. 

The result of the combination of such rare and happy 
moral and material elements has been the springing up of a 
nation as powerful as the most powerful, and in freedom 
equaled by none. 

And how well the United States know that there is no 
greatness without liberty ! 

Since the consciousness of right has become deeper, prin- 
ciples of respect and faith have become implanted in the 
commonwealth of nations, whatever be the extent of their 
territory, their population, or their armed forces. The 
inveterate abuses of force are disappearing. The principle 
which, being embodied into a law of equality among all the 
nations, always prevails at present in international relations 
is that of liberty for the weaker side. 



CHILE 107 

The American Union — the free country — years ago 
estabHshed its foreign policy on the plan of equality. Its 
commercial flag waves throughout the world without 
arrogance or spirit of intervention. 

Your natural wisdom tells you, Mr. Root, that you do not 
need any other than mercantile expansion, and still more 
that none other would be suited to you. 

You have of late repeatedly given practical and unmis- 
takable testimonials that this is your policy. 

You have stated so yourself at Rio de Janeiro, and your 
presence among us is a further proof that your purposes are 
friendly and frank. 

Let us enter into commercial relations with the United 
States with friendship and confidence. We shall proceed as 
far as is mutually beneficial to us, and this will be shown us 
by the natural laws of mercantile transactions. 

The Government desires that American goods shall come 
to Chile in abundance to facilitate living, and it earnestly 
desires at the same time that Chilean products may be 
multipHed and that they may endeavor to offset these 
importations. 

Since the sixteenth of August we have been pushing more 
resolutely than before the work of our restoration. We have 
all the moral factors, namely, order, will, and an apt and 
energetic people. We also have incalculable and extremely 
varied natural resources. There is only one material factor in 
which we may be short, namely, capital, which is a powerful 
force if well employed. 

Chile will be glad to see American capital come and 
estabhsh itself in our commercial and industrial circulation. 
It will blend well with Chilean honor and will prosper 
under the protection of our laws, which are liberal with the 
foreigner, and under the shelter of our government, which 
is unshakable. 



108 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

We are certain that Chilean interests will meet the same 
respect from the government of the Union that we cherish 
for American interests. 

The infinite variety of articles of supply and consumption 
will certainly enable the interchange of goods between Chile 
and America to increase without narrowing the horizons of 
our commerce with friendly markets, which today bring us 
capital, raw materials, workmen, and manufactures. 

The American Union has happily solved its internal and 
foreign problems, has established its political and economic 
power on a firm basis, and is, finally, in full enjoyment of its 
natural greatness and freely exercising all its energies at the 
present time. We have attentively observed that it desires 
to promote the progress of the world and to see the other 
nations of Christendom, especially the American republics, 
associated in this great work on terms of equality, friendship, 
and mutual benefit. 

We respond, therefore, to its affectionate call by declaring 
that we are imbued with sincere faith in the friendship of the 
government and the people of the United States; we utter 
fervent wishes that our mutual confidence may become 
strengthened and be free of misgivings; and we prophesy 
that the rapprochement which the eminent Secretary of State 
now visiting us has initiated will be of beneficent influence 
on our international cordiality and bring prosperous results 
for our development. 

Most excellent Mr. Root, His Excellency the President of 
the Republic requests you to say to the illustrious President 
Roosevelt and to your fellow-citizens that the Chilean people 
fraternize cordially with the American people; that our mar- 
kets are free to them; that we admire your government offi- 
cials; that your most excellent minister, Mr. Hicks, enjoys 
our highest esteem and good feeling; and that we have 
received you and your most worthy family with open hearts. 



CHILE 109 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I BEG you to believe in the sincere and high appreciation 
which I have for all the kindness you have shown me and my 
family since our arrival in Chile. I believe that the delicacy, 
the sense of propriety and fitness, that have characterized 
our reception, both official and personal, have produced in our 
minds, under the sad circumstances of the great misfortune 
that hangs over the Chilean people like a cloud, a deeper 
impression than the most splendid and sumptuous display. 
I believe that to be able to mourn with you in your loss, to 
sympathize with you in your misfortune, draws us closer to 
you than to be with you in the greatest prosperity and happi- 
ness upon which the brightest sun has ever shone. 

I thank you for your kindly expressions regarding my 
President, regarding myself, and regarding my country. In 
the " United States of America," as our Constitution called 
us many years ago — the '* United States of North America," 
as perhaps we should call ourselves south of the equator — 
we have been for a long time, and are still trying to reconcile 
individual liberty with public order, local self-government 
with a strong central and national control; trying to develop 
the capacity of the individuals of our people to control them- 
selves, and also the capacity of the people collectively for 
self-government; trying to adopt sound financial methods, 
to promote justice — a justice compatible with mercy — 
and to make progress in all that makes a people happier, 
more prosperous, better educated, better able to perform 
their duties as citizens and to do their part in the world to 
help humanity out of the hard conditions of poverty and 
ignorance and along the pathway of civilization. We have 
done what we could. We have committed errors and we 
acknowledge them and are deeply conscious of them; but 
we are justly proud of our country for the progress it has 



110 L.\T1N AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

made; and we look on every country that is engaged in that 
same struggle for liberty and justice with profound sympathy 
and warm friendship. 

I am here to say to the Chilean people that although there 
have been misunderstandings in the past, they were mis- 
understandings such as arise between two vigorous, proud 
. peoples that know each other too little. Let us know each 
other better and we shall have put an end to misunderstand- 
^ings. The present moment is especially propitious for saying 
this, because we are upon the threshold of great events in 
this western world of ours. In my own country the progress 
of development has reached a point of transition. In the 
fifty years, from 1850 to 1900, we received on our shores 
nearly twenty million immigrants from the Old World. We 
borrowed from the Old W^orld thousands of millions of dol- 
lars; and wath the strong arm of the immigrants and with 
the capital from the Old World, we have threaded the 
country with railroads, we have constructed great public 
works, we have created the phenomenal prosperity that you 
all know; and now we have paid our debts to Europe; we 
have returned the capital with which our country was built 
up; and in the last half dozen years we have been accumulat- 
ing an excess of capital that is beginning to seek an outlet in 
foreign enterprises. 

At the same time, there is seen in South America the dawn 
of a new life which moves its people, as they have never been 
moved before, with the spirit of industrial and commercial 
progress. 

At a banquet that was given last winter to a great and 
distinguished man, Lord Grey, Governor-General of Canada, 
he said: " The nineteenth century was the century of the 
United States; the twentieth century will be the century of 
Canada." I should feel surer as a prophet if I were to say: 
** The twentieth century will be the century of South 



CHILE 111 

America." I believe, with him, in the great development of 
Canada; but just as the nineteenth century was the century 
of phenomenal development in North America, I believe that 
no student can help seeing that the twentieth century will be 
the century of phenomenal development in South America. 

And so our countries will be face to face in a new attitude. 
We cannot longer remain strangers to each other; our rela- 
tions must be those of intimacy, and this is the time to say 
that our relations will be those of friendship. 

On the other hand, before long the construction of the canal 
across the Isthmus of Panama, which will fulfill the dreams 
of the early navigators, which will accomplish the work pro- 
jected for centuries, will at last be completed, while the men 
who are today active in the business of both countries are 
still on the field of action. 

This, therefore, is the moment to safeguard harmony in 
the relations between the two nations. 

I do not believe that any one can say what changes the 
opening of the Panama Canal will bring in the affairs of the 
world; but we do know that great changes in the commercial 
routes of the world have changed the course of history, and 
no one can doubt that the creation of a waterway that will 
put the Pacific coast of South America in close touch with 
the Atlantic coast of North America must be a factor of 
incalculable importance in determining the affairs of the 
western hemisphere and promoting our relations of intimacy 
and friendship. 

Now, at this moment, at the beginning of this great com- 
mercial and industrial awakening — I say at the beginning, 
notwithstanding all that you have already done, because I 
believe you have only begun to realize the great work you 
have before you — at this moment there falls on you this 
terrible misfortune, one of those warnings that at times God 
sends to his people to show them how weak they are in his 



112 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

hands — a misfortune because of which the entire world 
mourns with you. But I beheve — I know — that the air of 
these mountains and of these shores, which in another time 
gave its spirit to the proud and indomitable Arucanian race, 
has given to the people of Chile the vigor with which to rise 
up from the ashes of Valparaiso and with which to make 
out of the misfortune of today the incentive for great deeds 
tomorrow. And in this era of friendship, when peaceful 
immigration has replaced armed invasions, when the free 
exchange of capital and the international ownership of indus- 
trial and commercial enterprises, of manufactures, of mines, 
have replaced rapine and plunder — in this era of commer- 
cial conquest and industrial acquisition, of more frequent 
intercourse among men, of more intimate Imowledge and 
better understanding, there has come to you in this your great 
misfortune the friendship and the sympathy of the world. 

In truth, our friends who sleep the last sleep there in Val- 
pariso have brought to their country a possession of greater 
value than was ever won by the soldier on the battlefield. 

As I said to you yesterday, Mr. President, I feared that 
under the present sad circumstances I might be intruding 
upon you; should I not rather feel that the words of friend- 
ship of which I am the bearer are in perfect harmony with the 
sentiment that your affliction has created in all countries, 
the universal recognition of the brotherhood of man ? 



PERU 

BANQUET AT THE GOVERNMENT PALACE, LIMA 

Speech of His Excellency Jose Pardo y Barkeda 

President of the Republic 
September 10, 1906 

WITH the most sincere good will, I cordially welcome 
you in the name of my country and of its Govern- 
ment, and I believe I faithfully interpret the sentiments that 
rule in Peru in telling you of its sincere good will toward the 
United States, their illustrious President, and toward your 
own distinguished person. These feelings which unite the 
two countries began in the dawn of independence, because 
the founders of the great republic showed our forefathers 
the way to become free; and they strengthened us from the 
first days of our independent life by the safeguard which 
the admirable foresight of another great statesman of your 
country placed around American soil. 

Since then the closest friendship has united the two nations. 
Peru has received from the United States proofs of a very 
special deference, and has appreciated the efforts made by 
your government to establish political relations between the 
American peoples upon the basis of right and justice. In 
this most noble aspiration, worthy of the greatness of your 
country, Peru, on her part, unreservedly acquiesces. 

The lofty ideas which you have expressed since your arrival 
in South America, the frank expressions of cordiality, the 
concepts of stimulus and aid to induce us, the Americans of 
the South, to work in the same way as those of the North, 
with earnestness and unflinching hope in the future, have 
found in every breast the most pleasing echo, and they direct 
toward your person the most lively sympathy. 



114 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Closely associated fellow- worker with the illustrious states- 
man who rules the destinies of your country, to you belongs, 
in a great measure, the acclamation with which America and 
the entire world would greet the great nation that has con- 
stituted the most perfect democratic society, that has made 
the most surprising progress in industrial and economic order, 
and that has placed the prestige of its greatness at the 
service of peace all over the world. 

Gentlemen, I invite you to drink to the United States; to 
its President, Mr. Roosevelt; and to its Secretary of State, 
Mr. Root. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you sincerely, both in my own behalf and in behalf 
of my country, for your kind welcome and for the words, full 
of friendship and of kindly judgment, you have uttered 
regarding my country and regarding her servants, the Presi- 
dent and myself. The distinguished gentleman who repre- 
sents Peru in the capital of the United States of America, and 
who shares with you, sir, the inheritance of a name great and 
honored, not only in Peru but wherever the friends of con- 
stitutional freedom are found — in his note of invitation to 
me, upon which I am now a visitor to your city, used a form 
of expression that has dwelt in my memory, because it was so 
true. He spoke of the old, sincere, and cordial friendship of 
our two countries — that is indeed true of the friendship of 
the United States of America and the republic of Peru. It is 
an old friendship, a sincere friendship, and a cordial friend- 
ship. I have come here not to make new friends, but to greet 
old ones; not to announce a new departure in policy, but to 
follow old and honored lines; and I should have thought that 
in coming to South America in answer to the invitations of 
the different countries, all do^Ti the east and up the west 
coast, to have passed by Peru would indeed be to have played 



PERU 115 

"Hamlet" with Hamlet left out. It is still a more natural and 
still a stronger impulse to visit Peru at this time, as a part 
of a mission of friendship and good will, when the relations 
between the two countries are about to be drawn even closer. 

The completion of the canal across the Isthmus of Panama 
will make us near neighbors as we have never been before, so 
that we may take our staterooms at the wharf at Callao or at 
New York, and visit each other without change of quarters 
during the journey. And no one can tell what the effect of 
the canal will be. We do know that nothing of the kind was 
ever done before in human history without producing a most 
powerful effect upon mankind. The course of civilization, 
the rise and fall of nations, the development of mankind, 
have followed the establishment of new trade routes. No one 
can now tell just what the specific effect of the cutting of the 
canal across the isthmus may be; but it will be great and 
momentous in the affairs of the world. Of this we may be 
certain, that for the nations situated immediately to the 
south and immediately to the north of the canal, there will be 
great changes in their relations with the rest of the world; 
and it is most gratifying to know that this great work which 
the United States of America is now undertaking — the cost 
of which she never expects to get back — a work which 
she is doing not merely for her own benefit, but because she 
is moved by the belief that great things are worth doing, is 
going to bring great benefits to the entire world, and to her 
old and her good friend, the republic of Peru. 

I thank you, Mr. President, for your kind reception, and I 
beg you to permit me to ask the gentlemen here to join me in 
proposing in behalf of President Roosevelt the health and 
long life and prosperity of the President of Peru. 



IIG LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

BANQUET OF THE ^^XISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
Speech of His Excellency Javier Prado y Ugarteche 

M1.VI8TEU yon Foreign AFFAins 
At tlie Union Club, September 11, 1906 

With the liveliest feelings of consideration and sympathy I 
have the honor to ofiFer this manifestation to His Excellency 
Mr. Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States of 
America. 

Yielding to the generous impulses of your American heart, 
and of your brain of a thinker and of a statesman, you have 
felt a desire, Mr. Root, to visit these countries, to address to 
them words of friendship and of interest in their welfare, in 
the name of the honorable government which you represent, 
and to shed over this continent the rays of the noble ideal of 
American fraternity. 

Your visit will undoubtedly produce fruitful results on 
behalf of liberty and of justice, of peace and of progress, of 
order and of improvement, which you have proclaimed as 
being the highest principles inspiring the policy of the United 
States in the special mission for which their peculiar virtues 
and energy' have marked them out in the destiny of humanity. 

WTien those austere founders of American independence 
laid the foundations of the great republic of the North, and 
gave it its constitution, they were not inspired by narrow- 
minded ideas or by selfish and transitory interest, but by a 
profound conviction of the rights of man and a deep feeling of 
hberty and of justice, which, in its irresistible consequences, 
would bring about the social and political transformation 
which came to pass in the world at the end of the eighteenth 
century, and was destined to constitute the gospel of liberty 
and of democracy in our modern regime. 

This same people, although still in its youth, did not hesi- 
tate, shortly after, all alone, to guarantee the independence of 



PERU 117 

all the American countries, placing before the great powers 
of the world the pillars of Hercules of the Monroe Doctrine, 
forming an impassable gateway to a free and unconquerable 
America. 

Today this same people excites the admiration of the whole 
world by its grandeur. Its government brings to its level 
the harmony of humanity; reestablishes, on the one hand, 
peace between the empires of Europe and of Asia, and, on the 
other, between the republics of Central America; patronizes 
the congress of The Hague, and in it obtains the recog- 
nition of the personality of the American nations, thus giving 
proof of the interest it takes, with equal concern, in the 
future of the peoples civilized for a century, as well as in 
that of the countries just commencing their existence. The 
American Constitution, the Monroe Doctrine, together with 
the poHcy of President Roosevelt, and of his Secretary of 
State, Mr. Root, voice in this manner, tlirough the pages of 
history, the same language of hberty, of justice, humanity, 
and Americanism. 

How deep is the lesson to be learned from these facts ! 

The ancient ideas founded right upon force, the regime of 
the social bodies was that of privilege, and individual efforts 
were tied by bonds imposed in the name of the authorities. 
The modern ideas, such as the United States proclaim, found 
all right upon justice, and the social regime upon liberty and 
equality. The human being is not an instrument for the 
display of arbitrary power, but is the whole object of social 
life, the mission of which is the development of its energies, 
its moral conscience, the improvement and welfare of indi- 
viduals and of nations. 

According to the ancient ideas, the greatness of the nations 
was measured by their military power and by the limits of 
their conquests of force. According to modern ideas, as 
represented by the United States, the greatness of nations is 



118 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

measured by the conquests obtained by individual and 
collective efforts, thereby creating the fruitful and happy 
reign of truth, of justice, of labor, and of peace. 

War was formerly a glory; nowadays it is a calamity. 
Later on it will be condemned as the sad ancestral remains 
of barbarism and savagery. 

The evolution of ideas is that which now rules the world; 
and if people do not always comprehend this fact it is because 
the selfish and personal prejudices, passions, and interests 
disturb and impair their judgment. 

In modern progress, the regime of privilege and of force 
can no longer create rights nor lend security for the future or 
the aggrandizement of nations; and nowadays those individ- 
uals do not render a service to their native land who, while 
they sacrifice permanent interests, think they can calculate 
the meridian of their country by the artificial reflections of 
a moment, transitory and perishable. 

The regime of force or of armed peace consumes the vital 
forces and the resources of nations ; and then from the abyss 
of inequality, of affliction, and danger produced, bursts forth 
once more the social and political problem demanding, with 
threats, the reform of the evil, and laying down the maxim 
that only the ideal of justice, of Hberty, and of human soH- 
darity can possibly stand forth, firm and unshaken, amidst 
the ruins in which the wild ideas of greatness held by the 
military powers of the world will remain buried forever. 

It is not by means of a regime of force, but by that of 
liberty, peace, and labor, that the United States of America 
has been enabled to form a marvelous abode of vitality and 
human progress; and its government, with a perfect insight 
into the greatness of that country and of its destiny, today 
addresses the present and the future of our world, and with 
special interest explains to America the only paths that will 



PERU 119 

lead the nations to the attainment of tranquillity and 
well-being. 

Once that existence is obtained, you have said, Mr. Root, 
that it is necessary to live and advance worthily and honor- 
ably, — and that this object cannot be attained by a regime 
of domestic oppression and of privilege, nor by the external 
one of isolation or of war, but by that of liberty, order, 
justice, economical progress, moral improvement, intellectual 
advance, respect for the rights of others, and a feeling of 
human solidarity. You have clearly stated: 

No nation can live unto itself alone and continue to live. Each nation's 
growth is a part of the development of the race. ... A people whose 
minds are not open to the lessons of the world's progress, whose spirits are 
not stirred by the aspirations and achievements of humanity, struggling 
the world over for liberty and justice, must be left behind by civilization in 
its steady and beneficent advance. 

In the life of nations there must always prevail an ideal 
and a harmony of right, of liberty, of peace, and fraternity, 
although this can only be obtained by persevering efforts, 
by sacrifices, and by a long and distressing march. It 
is necessary to " labor more for the future than for the 
present " and unite together all the nations engaged in the 
same great task, inspired by a like ideal and professing 
similar principles. 

Peru has read your words, Mr. Root, with profound atten- 
tion. She is proud to say that in the modest sphere she 
occupies in the concert of nations, she accepts your ideas as 
her own, and declares that they also constitute her profession 
of faith as regards her international policy. 

With your superior judgment you have exactly compre- 
hended the difficulties, critical moments, and convulsions 
which the countries of this continent have undergone in order 
to establish a repubhcan government, together with a 



120 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

regime of liberty and democracy. They are still in the first 
period of their development and have yet many problems 
to solve. 

To develop the immense resources and wealth with which 
nature has so wonderfully endowed these countries; to 
render their territory accessible to labor and civilization by 
opening up means of communication, granting all facilities 
and giving security for the life, health, and welfare of their 
inhabitants; to obtain the population which their immense 
territories require: to educate and instruct the people, mak- 
ing them understand their liberty, their duties, and their 
rights; to develop their faculties and energies, their labor 
forces, their industrial and commercial capacity and power; 
to elevate their moral dignity; to consolidate and strengthen 
the national unity; to insure definitely the government of 
the people, in justice, in order, and in peace; to attract 
capital and foreign immigration; to develop and give impulse 
to commercial relations with other countries; to maintain a 
frank and true international harmony and solidarity; to 
respect all mutual and reciprocal rights and settle all dis- 
agreements by friendly, just, and honorable means — to 
perform, in short, the work of human civilization; these are 
undoubtedly the points which ought to occupy, first of all, 
the thoughts of the administration of these countries, in order 
to secure then- tranquillity, their welfare, and their aggran- 
dizement, just as the United States have secured theirs by 
the genius of their people and the power of their ideals. 

If the nations of America, instead of living apart from each 
other and separated by distrust, threats, and quarrels — 
which unsettle them, rendering their energy and develop- 
ment fruitless, just as they have kept up a state of anarchy, 
for a long time, in their internal existence — would unite 
themselves together by the natural ties which the community 
of their origin, of their civilization, of their necessities, and 



PERU 121 

their destinies clearly indicate, we should then witness the 
realization of the ideal you have conceived of a great, pros- 
perous, and happy America; the union of sister republics, 
free, orderly, laborious, lovers of justice, knowledge, sciences, 
and arts, cooperating, each one and all of them worthily and 
effectively, for the reahzation of the great work of human 
civilization and culture. 

The standard and observance of justice should bring about 
the definite disappearance of the disagreements which may 
have caused separation among the South American countries, 
just as family quarrels are effaced on the exhibition of a just 
and generous sentiment of sincere brotherhood and har- 
mony which vibrates throughout this continent as an intense 
aspiration of the American soul, and as a noble ideal of 
concord and of justice. 

It is never too late to recognize what is right and to proceed 
with rectitude. My memory suggests an important event 
some few years back in the history of the relations between 
Peru and the United States, described most correctly by the 
representative of your government as one of those most 
worthy of note in the annals of diplomacy. I refer to the 
serious question which arose in 1852 between our respective 
countries relative to the Lobos guano islands, when the 
United States held that they did not belong to the territory 
and sovereignty of Peru, and that as they had been occupied 
by American citizens your country would uphold these 
parties in the work of exploitation; but as soon as the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, after a lengthened and lively 
controversy, became convinced of the right which Peru had 
on her side, it at once spontaneously put an end to the ques- 
tion by a memorable note of its Secretary of State, recogniz- 
ing the absolute sovereignty of Peru over those islands and 
declaring that " he makes this avowal with the greater 
readiness, in consequence of the unintentional injustice done 



122 L/VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

to Peru, under a transient want of information as to the facts 
of the case." ^ 

When powerful nations, laying aside the instruments of 
oppression and violence which they have in their hands, rise 
to such a height of moral elevation, universal respect and 
sympathy will form the unfading halo of their grandeur. 

And thus it happened with the United States of America; 
and Peru has now the honor once more to express its thanks 
for the generous friendship and constant interest with which 
the United States have always paid attention to everything 
affecting the welfare and progress of our country. 

Peru, which is the depositary of the secrets of wondrous 
and unknown civilizations; which possesses great historical 
traditions; which was long ago the metropolis of this con- 
tinent, and then a Spanish colony; which has an enormous 
extent of territory, with the most varied and wonderful 
climates and wealth; after grievous domestic and foreign 
vicissitudes, has firmly taken in hand the great work of its 
reorganization; has acquired the knowledge of its public 
and private duties; has given vigor to its character and to its 
spirit of enterprise; has founded industries and labor centers; 
has fostered agriculture, mining, and commerce; is using 
every effort to foster public instruction, increasing the num- 
ber of schools throughout the country and giving civic 
education to its children; constructing railroads and public 
works of national and future interest; opening the minds 
and intelligence of its people to the currents of culture and 
modern progress, and endeavoring to estabhsh a solid and 
well-directed public administration; her fiscal revenues, her 
trade, and the general capitalization of fortunes have 
reached in a few years an extraordinary development which 
demonstrates the potentiality of the country. Enjoying 
public peace, she is using every effort to maintain a policy of 

» Mr. Everett to Seiior Osma, November 16, 1852. 



PERU 123 

frank understanding and friendship with all nations, and 
sustains the principle of arbitration for the solution of all her 
international controversies, thus giving evident proof of the 
rectitude of her sentiments, and that the only settlements 
which she defends and to which she aspires are the honorable 
settlements dictated by right. 

These ideas are likewise yours, Mr. Root. And I invite 
you, gentlemen, to unite with us in expressing the hope that 
the principles proclaimed by our enlightened guest, to whom 
we today offer the homage of our respect and sympathy, may 
everlastingly rule in America. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I SHOULD be insensible, indeed, were I not to feel deeply 
grateful for your courtesy, your hospitality, and your kind- 
ness; nor can I fail to be gratified by the words of praise 
which you, Mr. Minister, have spoken of my beloved coun- 
try, and by the hearty and unreserved approval with which 
you have met my inadequate expression of the sentiments 
the people of my country feel toward their sister republics of 
South America. The words which you have quoted, sir, do 
represent the feelings of the people of the United States. We 
are very far from living up to the standards which we set for 
ourselves, and we know our own omissions, our failings, and 
our errors; we know them, we deplore them, and we are con- 
stantly and laboriously seeking to remedy them; but we do 
have underneath as the firm foundation of constitutional 
freedom, the sentiments which were expressed in the quo- 
tations which you have made. 

No government in the United States could maintain itself 
for a moment if it violated those principles; no act of unjust 
aggression by the United States against any smaller and 
weaker power would be forgiven by the people to whom the 
government is responsible. 



124 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Mr. Minister, my journey in South America is drawing to a 
close. After many weeks of association with the distinguislied 
men wlio control tlie affairs of the South American repubhcs, 
after much observation of the widely different countries I 
have visited, it is with the greatest satisfaction that I find, in 
reviewing the new records of my mind, that the impressions 
with which I came to South America have been confirmed — 
the impression that there is a new day dawTiing, a new day 
of industry, of enterprise, of prosperity, of wider Hberty, of 
more perfect justice among the people of the southern con- 
tinent. 

I find that the difference between the South America of 
today and the South America as the records show it to have 
been a generation ago, is as wide as the difference marked by 
centuries in the history of Europe. Why is it ? You are the 
same people — not so much better than your fathers. The 
same fields offered to the hand of the husbandman their 
bounteous harvests then as now; the same incalculable wealth 
slept in your mountains then as now; the same streams car- 
ried down from your mountain sides the immeasurable 
power ready to the hand of man for the production of wealth 
then as now; the same ocean washed your shores ready to 
bear the commerce of the world then as now. Whence comes 
the change ? The change is not in material things, but in 
spiritual things. The change has come because in the slow 
but majestic progress of national development, the peoples of 
South America have been passing through a period of prog- 
ress necessary to their development, necessary to the build- 
ing of their characters, up from a stage of strife and discord, 
of individual selfishness, of unrestrained ambition, of irre- 
sponsible power, and out upon the broad platform of love for 
country, of national spirit, of devotion to the ideal of justice, 
of ordered liberty, of respect for the rights of others; because 
the individual characters of the peoples of the South Ameri- 



PERU 125 

can republics have been developed to that self-control, to 
that respect for justice toward their fellowmen, to that 
regard for the rights and feelings of others which inhere in 
true justice. The development of individual character has 
made the collective character competent for self-government 
and the maintenance of that justice, that ordered liberty, 
which gives security to property, security to the fruits of 
enterprise, security to personal liberty, to the pursuit of 
happiness, to the home, to all that makes life worth living; 
and under the fostering care of that character, individual and 
national, the hidden wealth of the mountains is being poured 
out to enrich manldnd; under the fostering care of that char- 
acter, individual and national, new life is coming to the fields, 
to the mines, to the factories, to commerce, to all the material 
interests of South America. 

Mr. Mmister, this is but a part of a great world movement 
on a wider field. It is no idle dream that the world grows 
better day by day. We cannot mark its progress by days or 
by years or by generations; but marking the changes by the 
centuries manlvind advances steadily from brute force, from 
the rule of selfishness and greed toward respect for human 
rights, toward desire for human happiness, toward the rule 
of law and the rule of love among men. My own country 
has become great materially because it has felt the influence 
of that majestic progress of civilization. South America is 
becoming great materially because it, too, is feeling the influ- 
ence that is making humanity more human. 

We can do but little in our day. We live our short lives 
and pass away and are forgotten. All the wealth, prosperity, 
and luxury with which we can surround ourselves is of but 
little benefit and little satisfaction; but if we — if you and I 
— in our oflSces and each one of us in his influence upon the 
public affairs of his day, can contribute ever so little, but 
something, toward the tendency of our countries, the ten- 



126 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

dency of our race, away from greed and force and selfish- 
ness and wrong, toward the rule of order and love — if we 
can do something to contribute to that tendency which 
countless millions are working out, we shall not have lived 
in vain. 

You were kind enough to refer to an incident in the diplo- 
matic history of the United States and Peru, when my own 
country recognized its error in regard to the Lobos Islands 
and returned them freely and cheerfully to their rightful 
owner. I would rather have the record of such acts of justice 
for my country's fair name than the story of any battle 
fought and won by her military heroes. 

We cannot fail to ask ourselves sometimes the question. 
What will be the end of our civilization ? Will some future 
generation say of us, in the words of the Persian poet, " The 
lion and the lizard keep the courts where Jamshyd gloried and 
^ drank deep " ? Will the palaces we build be the problem of 
the antiquarians in some future century ? Will all that we do 
come to naught ? If not — if our civilization is not to meet 
the fate of all that have gone before — it will be because we 
have builded upon a firm foundation, a foundation of the 
great body of the plain, the common people, and upon a char- 
acter formed on the principles of justice, of liberty, and of 
brotherly love. Our one hope for the perpetuity of our 
civilization is that quality in which it differs from all civil- 
izations that have gone before — its substantial basis. I 
find that here in Peru you are building upon that firm rock. 

I find that here individual character is being developed so 
that the people of Peru are collectively developing the neces- 
sary and essential national character. 

I find that the riches of your wonderful land are in the 
hands of a people who are worthy to enjoy them. 

I shall take away with me from Peru not only the kindest 
feelings of friendship and of gratitude but the highest and 



PERU 127 

most confident hope of a great and glorious future for the 
people to whom I wish so well. 

Mr. Minister, will you permit me the honor of asking all 
to join me in drinking to the health of His Excellency the 
President of Peru ? 

RECEPTION AT THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL 

Speech of Doctor Federico Elguera 

Mayor of Lima 

September 10, 1906 

The citizens of Lima welcome you and are glad to have you 
amongst them. 

You arrive at the capital of Peru, after visiting the leading 
cities in South America and receiving the greetings so justly 
due the great American nation and your own personal merits. 

You are an ambassador of peace, a messenger of good will, 
and the herald of doctrines which sustain America's auton- 
omy and strengthen the faith in our future welfare. 

The wake left by the vessel which has brought you hither 
serves as a symbol, indicating union, fraternity, and friendship 
between the northern and southern states of this continent. 

You have been able to form a general opinion as to the 
present state of the political, economical, and social devel- 
opment of Latin America. You also know now what her 
resources are and to what conditions the growth and progress 
of this southern continent are due. 

After visiting prosperous countries, whose peaceful labor 
on behalf of civilization has not been disturbed by the sor- 
rows of war, you reach a land where once flourished the 
greatest empire which ever arose in America. 

You have arrived at the ancient metropolis of Spanish 
America; you are now at the heart of a nation which attracted 
the world's attention in former days on account of its great- 
ness and the treasures it possessed — a nation which fought 



128 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

the final battles for independence; and, more important than 
all, a country which, having been shaken and convulsed by 
dissension, has risen once more to a life of well-being through 
a supreme effort of will and a firm belief in its future. 

The Peru you are visiting is not only the country of olden 
times, which tradition has made kno"VMi for its fabulous 
wealth, but it is a modern country, versed in the principles of 
order, industry, and labor. 

Nations which live exclusively on the wealth given them 
by nature make no effort to become greater, nor do they con- 
sider their future welfare, but perish, crushed by those whose 
envj' and greed they excite. 

On the other hand, those countries whose prosperity is 
based on the principles of justice, trade, and peace attain 
success and incite others to follow, contributing thus to the 
great work of universal civilization. 

Unfortunately, this peace, based on those principles, must 
be sustained abroad, following the example of the Old World, 
by the acquisition of elements of warfare only useful for 
the destruction and ruin of men and progress, wasting the 
national vitality and prosperity, earned by dint of the labors 
of the citizens and the products of the resources that nature 
has given. 

To change this system for another which will insure to our 
nations the tranquil possession of what lawfully belongs to 
them, allowing them to devote their efforts fearlessly to their 
owTi advancement, is the noble work to which the endeavors 
of the great nation which has risen up in the New World 
should be directed, just as the sun rises in the celestial dome 
to give light, heat, and life; to maintain the equilibrium and 
prevent the collision of lesser stars. 

Such ideals of civilization and fraternity have always 
guided the conduct of Peru, whose influence and predomi- 
nance in other times enabled her to watch over justice, to 



PERU 129 

render assistance to the weak, to fight oppression, and to 
defend the rights of America. 

For this reason we heartily sympathize with the doctrines 
you proclaim; for this reason we extend to you, with sincere 
regard, the hand of friendship; for this reason we feel satis- 
faction and pride when we behold the marvelous progress of 
your country. 

When nations succeed in reaching the degree of prosperity 
at which yours has arrived they do not excite envy, but 
emulation; they do not inspire fear, but confidence. 

Ere long the vigorous arm of your people will tear away 
the strip of land which still keeps us apart; and in the union 
of the two oceans surrounding our hemisphere may we hope 
that the spirits of Washington and Bolivar will watch the 
maintenance of peace and justice and follow the destinies of 
the republics they created. 

Mr. Root, may the days you are about to spend amongst us 
be happy and agreeable, and may their memory ever accom- 
pany you, as ours will ever retain the grateful impression of 
your visit. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I BEG you to believe that I appreciate most highly your kind 
welcome and the friendly terms with which you have greeted 
me. I did not feel as though I were commg among strangers 
when I entered Peru; I do not feel that I am treading on 
unknown soil when I set foot upon the streets of your famous 
and historic city. I think no city in the world, certainly - 
no city in the western hemisphere, is better known in the 
United States of America then the city of Lima. Almost 
every schoolboy in the United States has read in the books 
of our own historians the story of the founding of this city. 
We all know the wonderful and romantic history of your four 
centuries of life; we all know the charms, the graces, and the 
lovable qualities of your people. 



130 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

_^We know that you are the metropolis of a people who carry 
the art of agriculture to the highest degree of eflBciency, a 
people frugal, industrious, and of domestic virtue. We have 
seen with gratification that you are becoming also the metrop- 
olis of a people capable of winning from your mountains the 
inexliaustible wealth they contain, the metropolis of a great 
mining people; and within the past few years we have 
rejoiced to see that you are also on the road to become the 
metropolis of a great manufacturing people. 

We have read, too, the story of your struggles — first for 
independence, then for liberty, then for justice and order and 
peace; and with the memory of our own struggles for liberty 
and justice, with the experience of our own trials and diffi- 
culties, rejoicing in our own success and prosperity, Mr. 
Mayor, the feeling of sympathy and rejoicing in your success 
in overcoming the obstacles that have stood in your way, in 
your growth in capacity for self-government, in the con- 
tinuing strength of all the principles of justice and of order 
and of peace, is universal in my country and among my 
people. 

So I come to you not to make friends, but as a friend among 
friends. I thank you with all my heart, both for myself and 
for my people, for the kindness of your welcome and for what 
I know to be the sincerity of your friendship. 

RECEPTION BY THE SENATE 

Speech of Senator Barrios 
At an Extraordinary Session, September 13, 1906 

The Senate of Peru, honored by your official visit, greets you 
as the representative of a great democratic people, whose 
juridical methods, founded on liberty and equality, are a 
model for all the American parliaments. 

1 regard your visit to our young republic as one of most 
important and lasting effect in the history of the continent. 



PERU 131 

When these peoples have reached the power and develop- 
ment which the United States of America enjoys; when the 
citizens and the public authorities keep within the bounds 
imposed by the legitimate demands of liberty and justice and 
the requirements of order and progress; when all this is 
obtained by means of social well-being, of economic strength, 
and the political predominance which passes beyond the 
native land — then the legitimate and noble influence 
exercised on the life of other peoples is based, not on narrow 
schemes of national egotism, but on the broad and humane 
qualities of civilization. 

This your government has understood in sending a full 
representation to these republics, in harmony with the Ameri- 
can idea of union and progress, which the illustrious states- 
man who today presides over the glorious destinies of the 
American people — to the admiration and respect of all — 
expounds and accomplishes by his thoughtful work. 

In the dawn of the twentieth century may be seen in this 
part of the world communities of peoples who, with analogous 
institutions, must fulfill in history a single and great destiny. 
This part which the future reserves for us cannot be other 
than an effective and true realization of democracy at home 
and of justice in international affairs. 

Such is the direction in which Peru is developing her 
energies, after her past and now remote vicissitudes. Such 
is the ideal that animates her in pursuing her efforts for 
reconstruction, because a people without an aim in the 
struggle are unworthy of victory. " It is no more than a 
scratch on the ground ", using the words of your illustrious 
President. 

As the principal co-worker for the exalted international 
policy of the present government of the United States, 
receive, Mr. Root, the assurances of the highest consideration 
and sympathy of the Peruvian Senate. 



132 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I FEEL most keenly the great honor conferred upon me by 
this distinguished legislative body. I thank you for your 
courtesy personally; still more I thank you for the exliibition 
of friendship and sympathy for my country, — an exhibition 
which corresponds most perfectly to the spirit and purpose 
actuating my visit to Peru. 

I do not think, sir, that any one long concerned in govern- 
ment can fail to come at last to a feeling of deep solicitude for 
the welfare of the people whom he serves. He must come to 
feel toward them somewhat as the lawyer does toward his 
clients, as the physician feels toward his patients, as the 
clergyman feels toward his parishioners — the advocate, 
the friend of the people whose interests are committed to his 
official action; and, as a member of the government of a 
friendly republic, I feel toward you that sympathy which 
comes from a common purpose, from engagement in the same 
task, from being actuated by the same motive. The work of 
the legislator is difficult and delicate. Governments cannot 
make wealth; governments cannot produce enterprise, indus- 
try, or prosperity; but wise government can give that security 
for property, for the fruits of enterprise, for personal liberty, 
for justice, which opens the door to enterprise, which stimu- 
lates industry and commercial activity, which brings capital 
and immigration to the shores of the country that is but 
scantily populated; and which makes it worth while for 
the greatest exertions of the human mind to be applied to the 
development of the resources of the country. How difficult 
is the task! As the engineer controlling a great and compli- 
cated machine does not himself furnish the motive power or 
do the work, yet by a wrong turn of the lever may send the 
machine to ruin; so the legislative body cannot itself do the 
work that the people must do, yet by ill-advised, inconsid- 



PERU 133 

erate, and unwise legislation, it may produce incalculable 
misery and ruin. The wisdom that is necessary, the unselfish- 
ness that is necessary, the subordination of personal and 
selfish interests that is necessary, has always seemed to me 
to consecrate a legislative body seeking to do its duty by its 
country and make it worthy not only of respect but of 
reverence. 

Mr. President and Senators, in your deliberations and your 
actions, so fraught with results of happiness or disaster for the 
people of your beloved country, we of the North, the people 
of a republic long bound to Peru by ties of real and sincere 
friendship, follow you with sympathy; with earnest, sincere 
desire that you may be guided by wisdom; that you may 
work in simplicity and sincerity of heart for the good of your 
people; and that your labors may be crowned by those bless- 
ings which God gives to those who serve His children faith- 
fully and well. 

INSTALLATION OF MR. ROOT AS A MEMBER OF THE 

FACULTY OF POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES 

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN MARCOS, LIMA 

SEPTEMBER 14, 1906 

Speech of Doctor Luis F. Villaran 

Rector of the Untveesity 

The University of San Marcos of Lima heartily shares in the 
national rejoicing consequent on your visit to us, and greets 
you as the representative of the great republic which holds 
so many claims to the high esteem and consideration of the 
Spanish-American states of this continent. 

Your country, indeed, furnished valuable cooperation to 
the Spanish colonies in the establishment of their indepen- 
dence. With the example of your own emancipation, forming 
one of the greatest events of history, the longing for Hberty 
deepened in their breasts. It gave them courage in the 
struggle by frank declarations of friendship and sympathy; 



134 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

bestowed prestige on their cause by recognizing them as free 
states at a time when their emancipation was not entirely 
accomplished; and finally added strength to their victory by 
declaring before the whole world that the independence and 
integrity of these republics would be maintained at all costs. 

You, the Americans of the North, were the founders and 
defenders of the international and political liberty of these 
states. Washington, whose greatness has alone been given 
worthy expression in the inspired words of Byron — Wash- 
ington, ** the first, the last, the best of men", and the glorious 
group of illustrious citizens who aided him in his work, were 
the apostles of democracy and of the republic. The American 
Constitution is an admirable structure, built on the immov- 
able foundations of justice and the national will, which will 
never be overthrown by social or political upheavals. 

Half a century ago, Laboulaye, the illustrious professor of 

the College of France, said: 

Washington has founded a wise and well-organized republic and has 
bequeathed to history, not the fatal spectacle of crime triumphant, but 
a beneficent example of patriotism and virtue. In less than fifty years, 
thanks to the powerful influence of Liberty, an empire has been raised 
which before the end of the century will be the greatest state of the civilized 
world, and which, if it remain true to the ideals of its founders, if ambition 
does not check the era of its fortune, will furnish the world the spectacle of 
a republic of one hundred million men, richer, happier, and more glorious 
than the monarchies of the Old World. This is the work of Washington! 

This prophecy has been fulfilled; that half-century has 
passed by, and the great republic goes on its career of 
greatness, and no eye can discern the ultimate reach of its 
magnificence. 

Today, with the kind name of sister, it sends to us, through 
you, its worthy messenger, fresh words of encouragement, 
and invites us in a gracious manner to exert ourselves to 
greater efforts in the work of peace, of labor, and of the 
aggrandizement of the American continent. 



PERU 135 

You tell us that — 

Nowhere in the world has this progress been more marked than in Latin 
America. Out of the wrack of Indian fighting and race conflicts and civil 
wars, strong and stable governments have arisen. Peaceful succession in 
accord with the people's will has replaced the forcible seizure of power 
permitted by the people's indifference. Loyalty to country, its peace, its 
dignity, its honor, has arisen above partizanship for individual leaders. 

You add: 

We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our trade, to grow in 
wealth, in wisdom, and in spirit, but our conception of the true way to 
accompUsh this is not to pull down others and profit by their ruin, but to 
help all friends to a common prosperity and a common growth, that we 
may all become greater and stronger together. 

The University of Lima, an important factor in our 
national life, accepts on its part, and in harmony with public 
thought, your noble invitation. 

This University, the distinguished creation of the great 
Spanish monarchs, proud of its noble lineage of five cen- 
turies, jealous of its glories, believes it to be its duty and 
considers it a special honor to offer you, the illustrious mes- 
senger, the deep thinker, and the highest co-worker in the 
government of Theodore Roosevelt, the peacemaker of the 
v/orld, a post of honor. 

The Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences, 
founded thirty years ago by the distinguished President 
Manuel Pardo, and organized by the eminent pubhc writer 
Pradier Fodere — this Faculty, which professes, without 
limitations, the doctrines of international and political law 
as proclaimed in your country, is the one which with just 
right offers you this University emblem, which I am pleased 
to place in the hands of Your Excellency [addressing the 
President of Peru, and handing him the medal of the Uni- 
versity] that you may kindly deliver it to our illustrious 
guest. 



13C LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Speech of Doctor Ramon Ribeyro 

Dean of tue Faculty of Political and Administbattve Sciences 

September 14, 1906 

The presence among us of the eminent statesman, the Secre- 
tary of State of the United States, is indeed of great signifi- 
cance and surpassing importance in the course of our poHtical 
life, as a singular and unmistakable token of friendship 
offered by that powerful republic, and as a generous effort to 
create between the nations of America a stable regime of true 
understanding and concord. 

This work of peace, which is linked with an unvarying 
respect for the rights of all without regard to the extent of 
their power, with the close union of their interests, and with 
a political unity of purpose which springs from the historical 
origin of the republics of America and the analogy of their 
institutions, is outlined in a masterly manner in the address 
which our illustrious guest recently dehvered before the 
congress of American delegates convened at Rio de Janeiro. 

The general idea he has expressed therein of the principles 
of democratic regime, of its severe trials and accidental mis- 
takes, of the virtues which sustain popular government, and 
of the public education that must prepare and secure it, 
reveals to us the secret of the prosperity and welfare of the 
freest and most flourishing republic that has ever existed, 
and how it has reached the preponderant rank it now 
occupies among nations. 

The noble purpose of our powerful sister of the North, 
who with a persevering and ever steadfast persistency 
presses on, is the endeavor to combine continental interests 
lacking sufficient cohesion, and to promote their common 
development, thus seeking to reach " the complete rule of 
justice and peace among nations in lieu of force and war." 



PERU 137 

These words of Mr. Root contain, in their severe sim- 
plicity, a complete statement of his mission of friendship 
and advice. He seeks to stimulate the common aim of har- 
monizing the several interests on a permanent basis upon 
which is to be estabhshed the uniform rule of our common 
existence, the rule of justice never subservient to private 
and selfish convenience; a barrier against the arbitrary and 
brutal decisions of force, nearly always dissembled under 
plausible forms and motives of international tradition. 

There exists a fundamental sentiment which opposes the 
cumulus of violence and usurpation, which in a great degree 
constitutes historic international law and corrects the 
deductions made from purely speculative theories, — a senti- 
ment we accept without demur, and which is asserted like 
the axioms that serve as the basis and foundation of all 
reasoning and as a rule inspiring human actions. 

This concept is that of a law of coexistence, an intuition of 
the universal conscience, which all human society upholds by 
reason of the sole fact of its existence. 

But the completely empiric and egotistical manner in 
which nations have understood and applied the right of 
sovereign independence in their outward dealings, has, up to 
the present time, been the almost insuperable obstacle to the 
universal establishment of a rule of justice which governs, 
in a permanent and uniform manner, the concourse of 
interests; each state following one of its own modeling, in 
accordance with the power it holds and the ambitions it is 
thereby enabled to pursue. 

This tendency, whether open or covert, hardly restrained 
by the formalities of modern civilization, which seldom suc- 
ceeds in masking the painful reality, has created the singular 
spectacle witnessed at the present time, — that is, the unde- 
fined aggravation of a military situation which absorbs the 



138 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

greater part of the resources of nations, wrung from the labor 
of humanity. 

The constant fear of armed aggression has brought about 
poHtical alliances of a purely transitory character, which 
assure nothing and, in truth, mean nothing but the mutual 
imputation of violence and outrage, unhappily but too well 
demonstrated as justijSable motives for apprehension, by 
reason of the ominous antecedents of an international regime 
founded on the supremacy of power. 

This precarious guaranty, the fruit of an unsteady and 
purely political combination which may undergo the most 
unexpected alterations, cannot assure a stable situation, 
because it is not in itself the constitution of a common, 
strong, and commanding law; but, on the contrary, is the 
distrust of the efficacy of the latter and a certain traditional 
disdain for a humane and peaceful solution of international 
afiFairs. 

When the anxiety of danger or an unforeseen obstacle does 
not prevent recourse to arms, war breaks out if the motive is 
simply the securing of an advantage sustained by a military 
power which the country chosen as the object of aggression 
cannot forcibly check. 

True it is that at the present time wars are less frequent 
and more humane in the manner they are conducted than 
heretofore; but their causes are ever the same, and the inter- 
vals between them are only due to the increasing number of 
military powers, and to the fear of consequent complications 
of political interests which it is hazardous to provoke. 

Treaties of peace since the seventeenth century, which 
recorded the birth of the modern law of nations, have on some 
occasions passed through real transformation in obedience 
to the law of evolution of human societies, which favor 
equilibrium, not as established by frail or artificial alliances, 
nor by combinations of the powerful, but by its ethnical 



PERU 139 

factors and the amplitude of the national life based primarily 
on the progress of its institutions, in the ever-increasing 
intervention of the people in their own affairs and the reality 
and soundness of its political and civil liberty. 

The definite establishment of an international juridicrJ 
organ, sufficiently authorized and efficacious in its action, is 
yet a future event. Law in this respect has not as yet gone 
beyond the limits of a sphere that is at most one of pure 
speculation, — a worthy ideal, it is true, but one which in 
actuality has only succeeded in modifying the forms of 
violence by recording in the customary code of nations a few 
rules to lessen the brutality of the action, without eliminating 
the arbitrariness inherent in the sovereignty of arms. 

In the work of common security and prosperity that 
involves the future of this continent, and once carried into 
effect, will signalize the most effective advance in the law of 
nations, a prominent part belongs to the great republic that 
has staked her power and fortune on peace. In this work we 
have endeavored to cooperate in good faith and without 
reserve, and in it, also, the ardent sympathy and the bound- 
less confidence of the Peruvian people will follow. 

And since the unmerited honor has fallen to my lot to 
address myself on this memorable occasion to the distin- 
guished personage, to the high dignitary of the nation which 
represents the greatest intensity of national life on account 
of the unrestricted development of the human faculties and 
the most certain and practical evolution of law among 
nations, I believe that I interpret the unanimous sentiment 
of my colleagues and of my country, in furnishing him the 
complete evidence of our cordial adherence and of our faith 
in the work intrusted to his talents and to his high character. 



140 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I AM deeply sensible of the great honor which you confer 
upon me, an honor coming from this primate of the universi- 
ties of the New World; an honor which receives me into the 
company of men learned, devoted to science, the disciples of 
truth, men eminent in the republic of letters. I am the more 
appreciative of this emblem because I am myself the son of a 
college professor, born within the precincts of a learned insti- 
tution, and all my life closely associated with higher educa- 
tion in the United States of America. But I realize, sir, that 
my personality plays no considerable part in the ceremony of 
today. Happy is he who comes, by whatever chance, to 
stand as the representative of a great cause; as the repre- 
sentative of ideas which conciliate the feelings and arouse the 
enthusiasm of men; for the cause sheds light upon his person, 
however small, and the honor of his purpose reflects honor on 
him. 

With the greatest satisfaction I have heard from the lips of 
the learned rector and professor of this university so just and 
high an estimate of the contributions made by my country to 
the cause of ordered liberty and justice in the world. I feel 
that what has been said here today is of far greater weight 
than any ordinary compliment, because it comes from men 
who speak under the grave responsibility of their high station 
as instructors of their countrymen, and after deliberate 
study, resulting in definite and certain conclusions. 

It is a matter of most interesting reflection that after the 
nations of the Old W^orld, from which we took our being, had 
sought for many years to gain wealth and strength and profit 
by the enforcement of a narrow and mistaken colonial policy, 
the revolt of the colonies of the New World brought to the 
mother nations infinitely greater blessings even than they 
were seeking. The reflex action of the working of the spirit 



PERU 141 

of freedom on these shores of the new hemisphere upon the 
welfare of the countless millions of the Old World, has been of 
a value incalculable and inconceivable to the minds against 
whose mistaken policy we revolted. 

I have always thought, sir, that the chief contribution of 
the United States of America to political science, was the 
device of incorporating in written constitutions an expression 
of the great principles which underlie human freedom and 
human justice, and putting it in the power of the judicial 
branch of the government to pass judgment upon the con- 
formity of political action to those principles. 

When in the fullness of time the hour had come for the new 
experiment in government among men, and it was the fate of 
the young and feeble colonies upon the coast of the North 
Atlantic to make the experiment, the Old World was full of 
the most dismal forebodings as to the result. The world was 
told that the experiment of democratic government meant 
the rule of the mob ; that it might work well today, but that 
tomorrow the mob which had had but haK a breakfast and 
could expect no dinner, would take control; and that the 
tyranny of the mob was worse than the tyranny of any 
individual. 

The provisions of our constitutions guard against the 
tyranny of the mob, for at the time when men can deal in 
harmony with the principles of justice, when no selfish motive 
exists, when no excited passions exist, the constitution 
declares the great principles of justice — that no man shall be 
deprived of his property without due process of the law; 
that private property shall not be taken for public use with- 
out just compensation; that a person accused of crime shall 
be entitled to be informed of the charge against him, and 
given opportunity to defend himself. These provisions are 
essential to the preservation of liberty; and in the hands of 
judicial power rests the prerogative of declaring that when- 



142 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

ever a congress, or a president, or a general, or whatever 
officer of whatever rank or dignity infringes, by a hair's 
breadth, upon any one of these great impersonal declarations 
of human rights, his acts cease to have official effect. The 
substitution of the divine quality of judgment, of the judicial 
quality in man, that quality which is bound by all that honor, 
by all that respect for human rights, by all that self-respect 
can accomplish, to lay aside all fear or favor and decide 
justly — the substitution of that quality for the fevered 
passions of the hour, for political favor and political hope, for 
political ambition, for personal selfishness and personal greed, 
— that is the contribution, the great contribution, of the 
American Constitution to the political science of the world. 

If we pass to the field most ably and interestingly discussed 
in the paper to which we have just listened, to the field of in- 
ternational justice, we find the same principle less fully devel- 
oped. I had almost said we find the need for the application 
of the same principle. All international law and international 
justice depend upon national law and national justice. No 
assemblage of nations can be expected to establish and main- 
tain any higher standard in their dealings with one another 
than that which each maintains within its owti borders. Just 
as the standard of justice and civilization in a community 
depends upon the individual character of the elements of the 
community, so the standard of justice among nations depends 
upon the standard established in each individual nation. 
Now, in the field of international arbitration we find a less 
fully developed sense of impersonal justice than we find in 
our municipal jurisprudence. Many years ago the Marquis 
of Salisbury, in a very able note, pointed out the extreme 
difficulty which lies in the way of international arbitration, 
arising from the difficulty of securing arbitrators who will 
act impartially, the trouble being that the world has not yet 
passed, in general, out of that stage of development in which 



PERU 143 

men, even if they be arbitrators, act diplomatically instead of 
acting judicially. Arbitrations are too apt, therefore, to lead 
to diplomatic compromises rather than to judicial decisions. 
The remedy is not in abandoning the principle of arbitration, 
but it is by pressing on in every country and among all coun- 
tries the quickened conscience, the higher standard, the 
judicial idea, the sense of the responsibility for impartial 
judgment in international affairs, as distinguished from the 
opportunity for negotiation in international affairs. We are 
too apt, both those who are despondent about the progress of 
civilization and those who are cynical about the unselfishness 
of mankind, to be impatient in our judgment, and to forget 
how long the life of a nation is, and how slow the processes of 
civilization are; how long it takes to change character and to 
educate whole peoples up to different standards of moral law. 
The principle of arbitration requires not merely declarations 
by governments, by congresses; it requires that education of 
the people of all civilized countries up to the same standard 
which now exists regarding the sacredness of judicial func- 
tions exercised in our courts. 

It does not follow from this that the declaration of the 
principle of arbitration is not of value; it does not follow 
that governments and congresses are not advancing the 
cause of international justice; a principle recognized and 
declared always gains fresh strength and force; but for the 
accomplishment of the results which all of us desire in the 
substitution of arbitration for war, we must not be content 
with the declaration of principles; we must carry on an 
active campaign of universal national and international edu- 
cation, elevating the idea of the sacredness of the exercise of 
the judicial function in arbitration as well as in litigation 
between individuals. Still deeper than that goes the duty 
that rests upon us. Arbitration is but the method of pre- 
venting war after nations have been drawn up in opposition 



144 LATIN AMERICA AND TIIE UNITED STATES 

to each other with serious differences and excited feeHngs. 
The true, the permanent, and the final method of preventing 
war, is to educate the people who make war or peace, the 
people who control parliaments and congresses, to a love for 
justice and regard for the rights of others. So we come to the 
duty that rests here — not in the whims or the preference or 
the policy of a monarch, but here, in this university, in every 
institution of learning throughout the civilized world, w^th 
every teacher — the responsibility of determining the great 
issues of peace and war through the responsibility of teaching 
the people of our countries the love of justice, teaching them 
to seek the victories of peace rather than the glories of war; 
to regard more highly an act of justice and of generosity than 
even an act of courage or an act of heroism. In this great 
work of educating the people of the American repubhcs to 
peace, there are no political divisions. As there is, and 
has been since the dawn of civilization, but one republic 
of science, but one republic of letters, let there be but one 
republic of the politics of peace, one great university of the 
professors and instructors of justice, of respect for human 
rights, of consideration for others, and of the peace of the 
world. 



PANAMA 

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY 
Speech of His Excellency Ricardo Arias 

Sechetart op Government and Foreign Relations 
In the National Assembly, at Panama, September 21, 1906 

YOU have just visited the wealthiest capitals of South 
America, real emporiums of its richness; there you have 
been received with great magnificence. Our outward mani- 
festations of joy on the occasion of your visit may, therefore, 
appear to you very humble; but you can rest assured that 
none of them will surpass us in the intensity of sympathetic 
feeling toward your person and toward the noble American 
people that you so worthily represent. 

We Panamanians always remember with gratitude the 
interest we inspired in you from the very first days of our 
national existence, and we bear in mind very specially your 
timely speech delivered before the Union League Club of 
Chicago,^ when our destiny was pending on the scales of a 
decision of your Senate; and therefore we avail ourselves 
of this joyful opportunity to receive you with the cordiality 
due to an old and good friend. 

It has been, and it is yet, the vehement desire of your 
country to bring into closer ties, as far as possible, its political 
and commercial relations with the Latin American coun- 
tries. The similarity of traditions and institutions, the 
vicinity and continuity of their territories, and the vast field 
of commercial expansion which they ofifer, fully justify that 
natural, legitimate desire, which is also mutually beneficial; 



1 "' 



'The Ethics of the Panama Question"; address before the Union League Club 
of Chicago, February 22, 1904— see Addresses on International Subjects, pp. 175- 
206, published by the Harvard University Press. 



U5 



146 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

but there being between yours and the latter countries 
essential differences of language, race, disposition, and educa- 
tion, there is bound to exist in them the suspicion which is 
naturally engendered by the unknown, and thus it is that the 
first steps taken toward the accomplishment of your desire 
should have been the removal of that suspicion by means of 
friendly intercourse and mutual acquaintance. 

With the tact brought forth by your vast intelligence and 
learning, you fully understood that those do not love each 
other well who are not intimately acquainted ; and it is owing 
to this fact that you decided to come in person to visit and to 
know the Latin Americans by your own observation and 
study. No doubt you carry with you a joyful impression 
of the progress and nobleness of disposition of our southern 
brothers, together with the assurance that your mission will 
achieve a new and splendid triumph for that American dip- 
lomacy whereof you are the skilled director, and the princi- 
pal object of which is the accomplishment of the desire of 
which I have already spoken. 

Being desirous to cooperate in the aims you have in view 
and with the hope of dispelling certain existing misunder- 
standings concerning the motives and intentions which 
originated our present pleasant relations, in a statement 
which I recently addressed to your government through its 
minister plenipotentiary here, I recounted the historical 
events which engendered our national existence and those 
special relations which link us to your country, in order that 
when the seal of diplomatic silence is removed, and that 
statement becomes public property, the world may know, 
through the unimpeachable testimony of history, that only 
ideals of the highest altruism served as a guide to the foun- 
dation of our republic and to the celebration of the treaty 
concerning the construction of the interoceanic canal for our 
benefit and pro mundi heneficio. 



PANAMA 147 

Panama offers you a splendid field to promote the wise 
international policy which animates your mind. We being 
of similar conditions to our Latin American brothers, being 
linked to your country by the closest ties that can exist 
between two independent nations, you having the means of 
exerting decisive influence upon our future life and we being 
situated in the constant path of universal transit, shall be an 
evident, shining example of the benefit which your country 
can confer upon the countries of our race. 

The fruits of your influence are already felt and seen. 
Peace, which we consider a blessing, is a permanent fact. 
Under its shelter, and under the assurances given us by your 
illustrious President in his famous letter of October 18, 1904, 
addressed to the Secretary of War, Panama has entered with 
firm step upon the path of material, intellectual, and moral 
development. Those who knew us a little over two years ago, 
disheartened and ruined by bad government and civil war, 
and see today the change that has taken place in such a short 
time, carry to the north and south the gratifying news of our 
regeneration and thereby contribute to dispel unfounded 
suspicions regarding yourselves. 

These good results are the forerunners of greater benefits 
in the future, and of the effect of the cooperation of the 
agents of your government in the progress of the country in 
general, of their friendly and timely advice, and of their 
decided moral support whenever there has been need thereof. 
I will profit by this opportunity to convey to you the grati- 
tude of the government and people of Panama for the special 
consideration which has been extended to them by the gov- 
ernment of your country. This has been evidenced princi- 
pally by the diplomatic staff sent to us, from the very able 
Honorable William I. Buchanan, your first minister pleni- 
potentiary, to the popular Honorable Charles E. Magoon, 
who can hardly be replaced, and whose separation from the 



148 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

post he occupies with general satisfaction has caused great 
regret in the country; and later you sent us, doing us an 
unmerited honor, in the first place, by special order of your 
very noble President, your Secretary of War, Honorable 
William H. Taft, who established the relations between our 
two countries on the happy basis of mutual cordiality and 
justice, on which they are now established; and now, Mr. 
Secretary, you do us the great honor of coming yourself on a 
visit, placing us on a level with the powerful Brazil, Argen- 
tina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay; and, furthermore, which 
appears to be the extreme limit of what is possible, you allow 
us to look forward to the coming visit of your great President, 
the most distinguished of existing rulers — a special honor 
which has not been vouchsafed even to the most powerful 
nations of the world. Panama, overwhelmed with so many 
marks of appreciation, will preserve them as an everlasting 
remembrance of gratitude toward your noble country; and 
in return, though it be but partial, we will follow your advice, 
we will cooperate without reserve and with enthusiasm in the 
great work of the interoceanic canal, which is bound to be 
the most magnificent monument of the grandeur of your 
people; and we will likewise support you in the mission of 
American brotherhood which you have undertaken, founding 
a nation which shall distinguish itself by its love of work, of 
honor, of order, and of justice. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I THANK you for your kind welcome to me and for the friend- 
ship to my country expressed in that welcome, and I thank 
you for the honor conferred upon me by this reception in the 
legislative body which is charged with the government of 
this republic. You have truly said, sir, that I am deeply 
interested in the affairs of the people of Panama. At the 
time of the events which led to your independence, I studied 



PANAMA 149 

your history carefully and thoroughly from original docu- 
ments, in order to determine in my own mind what the course 
of my country ought to be. From that study have resulted a 
keen sense of the manifold injuries and injustices under 
which the people of Panama have suffered in years past, a 
strong sympathy with you in your efforts and aspirations 
toward a better condition, a fervent hope for your prosperity 
and welfare. 

It is with the greatest pleasure that I have heard the 
expressions of friendship for my country, because of my 
feeling toward you and because of the special relations which 
exist between the two countries. We are engaged together in 
the prosecution of a great, a momentous enterprise — an 
enterprise which has been the dream not only of the early 
navigators who first colonized your coasts, but of the most 
progressive of mankind for four centuries. Its successful 
accomplishment will make Panama the very center of the 
world's trade; you will stand upon the greatest highway of 
commerce; more than the ancient glories of the isthmus will 
be restored; and there lies before you in the future of this 
successful enterprise wealth, prosperity, the opportunity for 
education, for cultivation, and for intercourse with all the 
world such as has never before been brought to any people. 
The success of the enterprise will unite the far-separated 
Atlantic and Pacific coasts in my country; it will give to us 
the credit of great deeds done, and make the Atlantic and 
Pacific for us as but one ocean; and the success of this enter- 
prise will give to the world a new highway of commerce and 
the possibility of a distinct and enormous advance in that 
communication between nations which is the surest guaranty 
of peace and civilization. 

The achievement of this work is to be accomplished by us 
jointly. You furnish the country, the place, the soil, the 
atmosphere, the surrounding population among which the 



150 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

people who do the work are to live and where the work is to 
be maintained. "VVe furnish the capital and the trained con- 
structive ability which has grown up in the course of centuries 
of development of the northern continent. The work is 
difficult and delicate; the two peoples, the Anglo-American 
and the Spanish-American, are widely different in their 
traditions, their laws, their customs, their methods of think- 
ing and speaking and doing business. It often happens that 
we misunderstand each other; it often happens that we fail 
to appreciate your good qualities and that you fail to appre- 
ciate ours; and that with perfectly good intentions, with the 
best of purposes and kindliest of feelings, we clash, we fail to 
understand each other, we get at cross purposes, and mis- 
conception and discord are liable to arise. Let us remember 
this in all our intercourse; let us be patient with each other; 
let us believe in the sincerity of our mutual good purposes and 
kindly feelings, and be patient and forbearing each with the 
other, so that we may go on together in the accomplishment 
of this great enterprise; together bring it to a successful con- 
clusion; together share in the glory of the great work done 
and in the prosperity that will come from the result. 

Mr. President and gentlemen, let me assure you that in the 
share which the United States is taking and is to take in this 
work, there is and can be but one feeling and one desire 
toward the people of Panama. It is a feeling of friendship 
sincere and lasting; it is a feeling of strong desire that wis- 
dom may control the deliberations of this assembly; that 
judgment and prudence and love of comitry may rule in all 
your councils and may control all your actions ; it is a desire 
and a firm purpose that so far as in us lies, there shall be pre- 
served for you the precious boon of free self-government. 
We do not wish to govern you or interfere in your govern- 
ment, because we are larger and stronger; we believe that the 
principle of liberty and the rights of men are more impor- 



PANAMA 151 

tant than the size of armies or the number of battleships. 
Your independence which we recognized first among the 
nations of the earth, it is our desire to have maintained in- 
violate. Believe this, be patient with us, as we will be patient 
with you; and I hope, I believe, that at some future day we 
shall all be sailing through the canal together, congratulat- 
ing each other upon our share in that great and beneficent 
work. 



COLOMBIA 



CARTAGENA 



Address of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 

His Excellency Vasquez-Cobo 

At a Breakfast given to Mr. Root, September 24, 1906 

UPON receiving your excellency within the confines of 
our heroic and glorious Cartagena, I present to you a 
cordial greeting of welcome, in the name of Colombia, of his 
excellency the President of the Republic, and in my own. 

You return to your own country to enjoy merited honors 
and laurels after a long tour, giving a hearty embrace of 
friendship to our sisters, the republics of the South; and in 
breaking your journey upon our burning shores we receive 
you as the herald of peace, of justice, and of concord with 
which the great republic of the North greets the American 
continent. I trust to God that these walls, the austere 
witnesses of our glory, will serve as a monument whereby j 
this visit may be noted in history. 

The honorable Minister Barrett, the worthy and estimable 
representative of your excellency's Government, has just 
completed a journey through a large part of our vast terri- 
tory; he, better than any one, will be able to tell your 
excellency what he has seen in our beautiful and fertile 
valleys and mountains, in our flourishing cities and fields, 
and among our five millions of lusty, high-minded, peace- \ 
loving, and hard-working inhabitants, who today think only / 
of peace and useful and honest toil. / 

This is the nation that greets you today and with loyalty 
and frankness clasps the hand of her sister of the North. 

Mr. Secretary, upon thanking you for the honor of this 
visit, I fervently pray that a happy outcome may crown 

15S 



154 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

your efforts in the great work of American fraternity, and I 
drink to the prosperity and greatness of the United States, 
to its President, and especially to your excellency. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

Believe, I beg you, in the sincerity of my appreciation and 
my thanks for the courtesy with which you have received me, 
and for the honor which you have shown me. When the 
suggestion was made that upon my return from a voyage 
encircling the continent of South America, I should stop at 
Cartagena for an interview with you, sir, before returning to 
my own country, I accepted with alacrity and with pleasure, 
because it was most grateful to me to testify by my presence 
upon your shores to my high respect for your great country, 
the country of Bolivar; to my sincere desire that all questions 
^- which exist between the United States of Colombia and the 
United States of America may be settled peacefully, in the 
/spirit of friendship, of mutual esteem, and with honor to both 
countries. Especially, also, I was glad to come to Colombia 
as an evidence of my esteem and regard for that noble and 
great man whom it is the privilege of Colombia to call her 
President today — General Reyes. I have had the privilege 
of personal acquaintance with him, and I look upon his con- 
duct of affairs in the chief magistracy of your republic with 
the twofold interest of one who loves his fellow-men and 
desires the prosperity and happiness of the people of Colom- 
bia, and of a personal regard and friendship for the President 
himself. 

I have been much gratified during my visit to so many of 
the republics of South America to find universally the spirit 
of a new industrial and commercial awakening, to find a new 
era of enterprise and prosperity dawning in the southern 
continent. 



COLOMBIA 155 

Mr. Minister and gentlemen, it will be the cause of sincere 
happiness to me if through the present friendly relations, 
based upon personal knowledge acquired here, I may do 
something toward helping the republic of Colombia for- 
ward along the pathway of the new development of South 
America. With your vast agricultural and mineral wealth, 
with the incalculable richness of your domain, the wealth and 
prosperity of Colombia are sure to come some time. Let us 
hope that they will come while we are yet living, in order 
that you may transfer to your children not the possibility but 
the realization of the increased greatness of your country. 
Let us hope that some advance of this new era of progress 
may come from the pleasant friendships formed today. 
While I return my thanks to you for your courtesy, let me 
assure you that there is nothing that could give greater 
pleasure to the President and to the people of the United 
States of America than to feel that they may have some part 
in promoting the prosperity and the happiness of this sister 
republic. 

I ask you to join me in drinking to the peace, the pros- 
perity, the order, the justice, the liberty of the republic of 
Colombia, and long life and a prosperous career in office to 
its President — General Reyes. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 



Following Secretary Root's visit to South America, with its auspicious results, 
the President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, extended an oiBcial invitation to visit the 
republic immediately to the south of us, in the belief that such a visit would have 
equally happy results in strengthening and increasing the " steadfast friendship " 
existing between the two neighboring nations. 

Mr. Root, together with his wife and daughter, started for Mexico by special 
train, arriving in San Antonio on September 28, 1907. On the evening of the day of 
his arrival in San Antonio, a banquet was tendered to Mr. Root and the Mexican 
Committee which had come to San Antonio to welcome him and escort him into 
their country. 

On Sunday the 29th, the Root party, together with the Mexican Committee, 
proceeded across the boundary into Mexico, and were met at the station of Nuevo 
Laredo by a Mexican delegation. Thence they continued to Mexico City, where the 
honors extended to Mr. Root were in keeping with the traditional hospitality of the 
ancient capital of the Montezimaas. During his stay the degree of honorary member 
of the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence was conferred upon him. 

A Mexican publication of 314 pages, entitled El Sefior Root en Mexico, contains in 
parallel Spanish and English columns a detailed account of the visit, which extended 
from September 28 to October 16. It is to be regretted that this volume is defective 
in that many of the speeches made during the visit are not fully reported. It is pos- 
sible, however, to gather from those which have been preserved, a keen sense of 
the cordial reception accorded him by the ofiBcials and representative citizens of the 
republic, and the earnest and eloquent terms in which he reciprocated the expres- 
sions of regard for his country and of appreciation of his own services to his country 
and the world. 

The most progressive epoch in Mexico's history was the thirty years of Diaz's 
supremacy; and it was in the heyday of that period that Mr. Root made his visit to 
Mexico and paid to President Diaz the tributes which appear in the following pages. 
During these thirty years, he was always a firm friend of the United States, and 
no diplomatic misunderstandings arose which were not peaceably adjusted in a 
spirit of neighborly friendship. Diaz shares with President Roosevelt the honor of 
submitting the first international controversy to the Hague Tribunal of Arbitration 
for determination, in what is known as " The Pious Fund of the Calif ornias." 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 

SAN ANTONIO 
Speech of Mr. Root 

At a Banquet of the International Club in Honor of Mr. Root and the 
Mexican Envoys, September 28, 1907 

Upon his arrival in San Antonio, Texas, on his way to Mexico, Mr. Root was met 
by a reception committee designated by President Diaz, which had come to San 
Antonio to welcome him and to escort him to the national capital. While in San 
Antonio, Mr. Root and the Mexican Reception Committee were the guests of the 
International Club of that city; and on the evening of the day of their arrival, a 
banquet was tendered them by that club. At this banquet Mr. Root made what 
may be called the first address of his Mexican visit. The opening remarks of this 
speech were not reported in full in the volume entitled El Senor Root en Mexico, or 
elsewhere; nor were the speeches of the members of the Mexican Reception Com- 
mittee. Mr. Root began by a reference to the ideals adopted by men and by 
nations, declaring his opinion that a nation has a right to exist only in so far as it 
shows its ability to care for the welfare of other nations and the relations of every 
man with his fellow-men. He spoke of the rising tide of American business which is 
powerfully spreading towards the south by reason of the financial conditions in the 
east of the United States, every day becoming more stringent through the volume 
and accumulation of resources. After this introduction, he spoke at some length 
about the Panama Canal, the construction of which aheady was in its opening stage. 
On this subject he said: 

The Panama Canal is now an unquestionable certainty. 
Relations between the United States and the different nations 
which are grouped around the Caribbean Sea, are becoming 
every day closer. It is impossible to anticipate at present 
the tonnage which will pass through that waterway, nor 
can we predict the number of vessels which will be required 
for its transportation; but we do already know, that never 
in the world has a new and universal trade route been 
opened, without bringing about a change in the history of 
the entire world. And it is for this reason I feel that 
upon us has fallen the mission of assisting all those nations 

150 



ICO LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

which will find themselves involved in the new influence. At 
present we are doing everything within our power to assist 
Cuba in establishing self-government. We have endeavored 
to stretch out our hand to unhappy Santo Domingo, ruined 
by its civil w^ars, so that it may rise and also govern itself. 
We have plunged into a discussion which really has no further 
object than that of settling the disputes and the differences 
which have arisen between the United States and the republic 
of Colombia. And all this we do, not only through the new 
interest which the prosperity of all those countries develops 
in ourselves, but principally through a profound compre- 
hension of the truth contained in the principle above enunci- 
ated, that a nation only lives as far as it demonstrates its 
right to existence by its usefulness to humanity. And one of 
the most conclusive guarantees of the success of this eflFort is 
found in the solid and loyal friendship which exists between 
the United States and Mexico, with which nation, day after 
day, and year after year, we are working within the limits of a 
peaceful and humanitarian national policy, which at the 
same time is wuse and intelligent. Our two republics, now so 
prosperous, harmoniously work to promote a similar pros- 
perity amongst their sister republics to the south; and I 
sincerely hope that this happy state of affairs may be pro- 
longed for a long time to come, and that success may finally 
crown our united efforts. In this manner the two republics 
will fully prove their right to live, and will show the world 
that their citizens are able and competent to govern them- 
selves without the assistance of either kings or aristocracies, 
seeing that they can fill the highest mission of man, which 
consists in the maintenance of law, order, justice, liberty, and 
peace. . . . 

I also desire to say how greatly I appreciate the distin- 
guished courtesy shown to myself and to the Government of 
the United States, by the long journey which has been under- 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 161 

taken by the committee charged with the representation of 
President Diaz and the Mexican Government, crossing the 
frontier of their country into the state of Texas, in order to 
give me welcome on the occasion of the visit I am about to 
make. Indeed, it causes me the greatest satisfaction to be able 
to declare, without any reserve whatever, that this action is 
entirely in accordance with the conduct observed by Mexico 
in all international matters which have arisen between the 
two countries, since I have taken any part in the govern- 
ment of our own. With an immense boundary line which is 
only marked by the changeable and capricious currents of 
the Rio Grande; with the constant traffic across our com- 
mon frontier; with thousands of Americans residing in that 
country; with the countless number of enterprises in which 
Americans are interested on the other side of the Rio Grande, 
and with* the resources of the two countries, there are always 
a number of questions to be solved by the representatives of 
one and the other, and there can be no doubt that they will 
alw^ays be solved with the same good-will and courtesy of 
which such evident proof has been given by General Rincon 
Gallardo, by Mr. Limantour and by their travelling com- 
panions in coming here tonight.^ 

RECEPTION BY THE MEXICAN DELEGATION AT 
NUEVO LAREDO 

Speech of Welcome by General Pedro Rincon Gallardo 

September 29, 1907 

Especially appointed for this purpose by the President, in 
behalf of the government of the republic, we have the honor 
to tender to your excellency the most cordial welcome on 
your happy arrival in Mexico, whose people, of whom we 

* This address was answered in appropriate terms by General Rincon Gallardo as 
the representative of President Diaz, and among other things he congratulated him- 
self on the fact that the Mexican Committee had been granted the pleasing privilege 



162 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

must consider ourselves the faithful echo, pledge the con- 
tinued good relations with the people of the United States. 
The reception is an homage to your well-known merits, and 
the people are anxious to receive your excellency as their 
illustrious guest and highly esteemed friend. The people of 
Mexico, during your excellency's brief sojourn amongst us, 
will show how true is their esteem for you and how proud 
they will feel on the occasion of this visit of your excellency, 
accompanied by Mrs. and Miss Root; an event the memory 
of which will remain forever engraved on our hearts. 

Mr. Root's Reply 

I BEG you to believe that I am highly appreciative of the 
cordial and hospitable greeting with which I have been 
received by you on the threshold of your beautiful and 
wonderful country. I hope that the visit which now begins 
will not merely give me personally the opportunity I have 
long desired, to see this great country and its marvels, to 
meet its public men, and especially to see its illustrious 
President. I hope that it will also serve, as it is intended to 
serve, as evidence of the desire of the government and people 
of the United States to strengthen and increase the steadfast 
friendship which they have long felt for the people and govern- 
ment of Mexico. 

CITY OF :mexico 

Speech of Porfirio Diaz 

President of the Repubuc 
At a Banquet at the National Palace, October 2, 1907 

In the name of the Mexican people and of their government 
I tender you this banquet, acknowledging thereby those 
sentiments of sympathy which are felt and which distinguish 

of continuing to San Antonio in order to give there a welcome to the distinguished 
visitors. Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Garcia Cuellar also made an address. Neither 
of these addresses were preserved. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 163 

one and another, the people of the United States, the great 
citizen who presides over its high destinies, and the illustrious 
statesman who honors us with his interesting and very 
welcome visit. Bonds of sympathy and fellow-feeling, Mr. 
Secretary, which are not new, but which germinated in the 
breasts of our fathers at the inception of the independence 
of our country, our fathers who contemplated with patriotic 
enthusiasm the daring exploits in war and imitated the poli- 
tical examples set by your heroic liberators; sentiments 
which we, of subsequent generations, have also cultivated; 
because, in studying the causes which produce the prodigious 
national prosperity with which your country has astounded 
the world, we become accustomed to admire, to magnify 
perhaps, the indomitable will, energy, labor, and civic and 
patriotic solidarity which constitute the energetic and abun- 
dantly productive type of your countrymen. 

The Mexican people, Mr. Secretary, are honored as well 
as pleased to have you in their midst — honored, because 
you are the fountain of honor as a noted statesman of our 
century, and highly pleased because your clear and rapid 
conception promises us that, seeing with your own eyes the 
kind and well-merited feelings with which we harbor your 
countrymen who seek in our land the generous treatment 
proportionate to their intelligence, perseverance, and inde- 
fatigable labor, you may affirm that in Mexico we profess 
ideas which, carried out in cordial reciprocity, must make 
happy and loyal friends the two nations which are united 
by contiguity. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, I extend my thanks to the dis- 
tinguished ladies who have had the kindness to honor and 
embellish our tables with their presence; and permit me to 
invite you to drink with them and with me, hoping that the 
national harmonizing of individual rights and just liberties, 
which is called the United States of America, may be per- 



164 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

petuated in its increasing moral and material progress, which 
has given prestige throughout the world to government by 
popular representation. 

I drink also to the personal happiness of that great friend 
of universal peace, president of the grand republic, the 
Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, and to the hope that our 
illustrious guest and his lovable family may find in Mexico 
a reception as pleasing as their interesting visit is to the 
Mexican people. 

Mr. Root's Reply 

I THANK you most sincerely for the kind and gracious words 
which you have used regarding my poor self, regarding my 
President, from whom I bring to you and to the Mexican 
people a message of deep and warm friendship and good 
wishes, and regarding my country, which I believe is fitly 
represented by this brief visit of friendship, made with the 
purpose, not of creating, for they are already created, but of 
increasing and advancing the ideas of amity and mutual 
helpfulness between two great republics. 

I cannot keep my mind from reverting to a former visit 
by an American Secretary of State to the republic of Mexico. 
Thirty-eight years ago, ISIr. Seward, a really great American 
Secretary of State, visited your country. How vast the 
difference between what he found and what I find! Then 
was a country torn by a civil war, sunk in poverty, in distress. 
Now I find a country great in its prosperity, in its wealth, in 
its activity and enterprise, in the moral strength of its just 
and equal laws, and unalterable purpose to advance its people 
steadily along the pathway of progress. 

Mr. President, the people of the United States feel that 
the world owes this great change chiefly to you. They are 
grateful to you for it, for they rejoice in the prosperity and 
happiness of Mexico, We believe, sir, that we are richer 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 165 

and happier because you are richer and happier, and we rejoice 
that you are no longer a poor and struggHng nation needing 
assistance, but that you are strong and vigorous, so that we 
can go with you side by side in demonstrating to the world 
that republics are able to govern themselves wisely; side 
by side in helping to carry to our less fortunate sisters the 
blessing of peace. 

Mr. President, I have said that we need not create, but 
wish to strengthen, the ties of friendship. It is my hope that 
through more perfect understanding, through personal inter- 
course, through the more complete unity of action to be 
acquired by the individual intercourse of the men of Mexico 
and the men of the United States, not only may our friend- 
ship be increased, but our power for usefulness — for that 
usefulness which demonstrates the right of nations to be 
perpetuated — may be enlarged. 

For the generous hospitality, for the spirit of friendship 
with which you and the people of Mexico have welcomed me 
as a representative of the United States, I thank you and 
them, and I hope that there may be found in this visit 
and in this welcome not merely the pleasure of a holiday, 
but a step along the pathway of two great nations in their 
service to humanity. 

RECEPTION AT THE MUNICIPAL PALACE 
Speech of Governor Guillermo de Landa y Escandon 

October 3, 1907 

Last year, in accordance with the wishes of your President, 
you undertook to visit and become acquainted with Latin 
America, and for that purpose you made an extended voyage 
which was fruitful in happy results. 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century adventurous 
Spanish and Portuguese navigators sailed from the Atlantic 



166 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

into the Pacific, effecting important discoveries of which the 
object was to rescue from darkness populous regions which, 
since then, have become part of the civilized world. You 
have sailed over nearly the same route four centuries later, 
proclaiming a message of peace and concord in all those 
regions whose inhabitants greeted you with acclamations 
from the northern ports of Brazil around to those of Colombia 
and Panama. 

You are now crowning your mission by visiting the Mex- 
ican Republic, and you arrive at this capital animated by the 
same aspirations which actuated you when you set foot on the 
cruiser Charleston in the port of New York on July 4, 190C. 

Your aims are so noble and great that they cannot but be 
sincere. The course you have set before yourself would not 
be possible for one whose head did not harbor the loftiest 
ideals, and whose heart did not quicken to the finest sen- 
timents. 

Your President is a great man; rectitude and loyalty are 
the dominant features of his character. A soldier, and a 
brave one, he knows what war is, and therefore he abhors it 
with all the force of his large heart; the war which engages 
his thoughts is war upon war itself. 

It would not befit me at this moment, much as I should 
wish to do so, to extol the character of the supreme magis- 
trate of my country. But I may say that, though a soldier 
like your own President, he detests war in the same degree, 
and that the ideals and aims of both these great men are alike 
directed toward an object sublime and desired of all men — 
peace. 

The nations which both statesmen govern follow their lead 
in this respect with energetic unanimity; and it is safe to 
augur the happiest results from a concert so auspicious. 

You, sir, second the purposes of both of those leaders with 
a zeal which nothing can cool; your mind has been formed 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 167 

at the bar — in the school of justice; and, like our two 
Presidents, you abominate injustice and insincerity. 

You also know what war is, and you share the aversion of 
the two great American statesmen who are the standard 
bearers of peace in the new world. 

Welcome, excellency, to this ancient capital of the empire 
of Montezuma. She opens her gates to you and to your 
family, and offers you the sincerest hospitality, hoping you 
may preserve of her recollections as lasting as will be her 
memory of the visit of one whose happy mission it has been 
to carry everywhere the spirit of peace, good-will, and 
fraternity. 

Mr. Root's Reply 

GovEENOR Landa, your welcome now is as it has been from 
the first instant of my visit, both graceful and grateful. I 
have been most delighted by the many interesting things 
I have seen here. 

Above all things, I feel impelled to say that the most 
interesting thing in Mexico, so far as my knowledge goes, 
is your President. It,has seemed to me that of all the men 
now living, Porfirio Diaz, of Mexico, is best worth seeing. 
Whether one considers the adventurous, daring, chivalric 
incidents of his early career; whether one considers the vast 
work of government which his wisdom and courage and 
commanding character have accomplished; whether one con- 
siders his singularly attractive personality, no one lives today 
whom I would rather see than President Diaz. If I were a 
poet, I would write poetry; if I were a musician, I would com- 
pose triumphal marches; if I were a Mexican, I should 
feel that the steadfast loyalty of a lifetime could not be too 
much in return for the blessings that he had brought to my 
country. As I am neither poet, musician, nor Mexican, but 
only an American who loves justice and liberty and hopes to 



168 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

see their reign among mankind progress and strengthen and 
become perpetual, I look to Porfirio Diaz, the President of 
Mexico, as one of the great men to be held up for the hero 
worship of mankind. 

RECEPTION BY THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES 

Speech of Licentiate Manuel Calero 

President of the Chamber 

October 3, 1907 

Honorable Secretary of State, welcome; the national 
representation, the chamber that constitutionally symbo- 
lizes that people which in this section of the western hemi- 
sphere, is ever striving, ever struggling to attain a higher 
civilization, to win for itself a respected name among nations, 
feels pleasure in welcoming you to its midst. You are 
at the present moment the symbolical representation of a 
great and friendly people and the personification of its 
brotherly feelings toward us. You, honored sir, are our 
guest; and were the traditional chivalry of our people not 
sufficient justification for our cordiality toward you, the high 
character of your office, the luster encircling your name, and 
the mission of peace which brings you to this land, would all 
move us to open our arms to you, to show you what we are 
and what we would be, so that, on returning to your country, 
you may tell the millions of your fellow-citizens who will hang 
upon your words with rapt attention, that Mexico is not that 
mythical land, which legends shroud in the mists of the 
adventurous romance of the old Latin countries, restless, 
mistrustful, dreamy; nay rather, you will tell them, that it is 
a sturdy young nation, starting out, aye, already started, 
on the highroad of civilization and industrialism; that it 
pursues lofty ideals and strives to attain them, that its heart 
beats at the thought of universal solidarity, that it sees in the 
foreigner a friend, that it answers your brotherly message 



THE VISIT TO IVIEXICO 169 

with a frank and kindly greeting, free from resentment for 
the past, and trusting in the omens of the future. 

Your name is not unknown to us. We have followed the 
trail of your labors and triumphs for the last decade. We 
know, too, the people from whom you have come; and setting 
aside all false modesty, can truly say we know them better 
than they know us. The last thirty years of free intercourse 
between this country and yours have seen an overflow of men 
and money from north to south; we have dashed the mist 
from our eyes and have endeavored to wring from you, 
more fortunate and wiser than ourselves, the secrets of your 
greatness and the causes of your astounding prosperity. 

That you once "WTonged us, that, when burning political, 
economic, and humane problems beset you, the course of 
justice was momentarily hampered, we have not forgotten; 
we have not. But as the years have rolled on you have won 
back, inch by inch, your place in our affections; the inter- 
course every day has become closer and closer between your 
people and ours, stepping over the bounds set by race and 
tongue, infusing new life into this feeling of mutual good 
will and friendship, which tends to establish harmony of 
ideals and close similarity of destiny. 

So it is happening and so should it be. Offsprings of the 
same continent, your institutions point out the path for 
the development of ours, your mental and moral advance 
fires the vigor of our spirit, your tireless activity excites us to 
action; in a word, your progress uplifts our noblest ambi- 
tions. We are both marching on to the victories of civiliza- 
tion, although your lot, in the course of history, shall have 
been that of forerunners. 

One of your scholars has said that the American nation has 
rendered five eminent services to the world's civilization. 
True are his words. For the American nation has, in the 
first place, sustained by word and by deed, the principle that 



170 LATIN AIVIERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

the medium of bringing differences between nations to an 
end, is arbitration; it has accepted and practised religious 
toleration as has no other nation; it has known how to raise 
the dignity of man, by giving to the political vote the 
development which a true democracy calls for; it has thrown 
open its doors to all such as seek progress and liberty in 
your country, and it has taken them in to form part of 
one and the same great soul; and lastly, it has known, as 
no other nation has, how to scatter abroad material bene- 
fits, the very basis of the moral and mental perfection of 
the individual. To these factors and to others derived from 
the conditions of its privileged soil, is due the great impor- 
tance of the American people as a powerful force in the 
progress of humanity. 
/^ I shall not attempt to analyze in their essence these five 
glorious victories of civilization. My mind is dazed by the 
victory of democracy through the true action qf the suffrage. 
This is the germ, the primary origin of your greatness as a 
people, which makes you the beacon for the eager gaze of all 
those who, down-trodden by power or by poverty, seek under 
the shelter of your wise laws, the guarantee of life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness, to quote the sacred formula of 
your Declaration of Independence; this it is which explains 
why neither the difference of race and language, nor the 
morbid influence produced in the mind by secular despotism, 
nor the infinite diversity of religion, is an obstacle to the 
hundreds of thousands of helpless beings whom year by 
year the Old World is casting on your shores, to be trans- 
formed into citizens and become identified with the new 
fatherland, as if the national spirit had breathed into the 
souls of these new arrivals Jove for your glorious traditions 
and your lofty ideals of liberty, justice, and progress. The 
American fatherland is not hemmed in by battlements; it 
is the redeemer of all miseries, it is the refuge of all those who. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 171 

in their flight from tyranny, like your illustrious Carl Schurz, 
exclaim: ubi lihertas, ibi patria! 

We, less blessed by fortune, but no whit less rich in ideals 
and lofty aspirations, find pleasure in studying your people. 
We shall endeavor to reap benefits from the lessons of your 
success, and we shall try to avert the great evils which are 
born of a prosperity such as yours, and which would under- 
mine the walls of your civilization, did there not arise from 
out of your midst men of great virtue and indomitable 
strength of will, armed for the fray against guilt, combating 
evil, true apostles of right. Theodore Roosevelt is such a 
man, the most conspicuous of our times, the ardent devotee 
of justice, who claims for good citizens, for the rich and the 
poor, the proud and the humble, perfect equality and liberty 
unrestrained, without which lawful energies may not expand; 
and demands alike for all equal justice, equal treatment, 
" a square deal " — to use his own concise and vigorous 
phrase. 

This it is which explains the whole-hearted prestige won by 
your Chief Executive within the limits of your own coun- 
try, and which has passed the bounds of your territory and 
been merged in the international prestige accorded to him by 
all cultured nations. And, in no small measure, did you with 
your knowledge, your ceaseless labor and your delicate tact 
contribute to this happy end. Thus the world has seen how 
the voice of Theodore Roosevelt, outreaching the roar of the 
cannons of Mukden, put an end to the war which in shame to 
human culture heralded the dawn of the twentieth century; 
it has seen how, in deference to his initiative, the cultured 
nations of the world hastened to meet at The Hague Confer- 
ence, and how, as a reward for his constant efforts, united 
with those of the glorious Chief Executive of this republic, 
who now receives you with every mark of honor, the dis- 
orders in the neighboring republics to the south were paci- 



172 LATIN AIVIERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

fied, and these are now making ready for a work of peace 
and harmony, — the beginning of that longed-for era of 
prosperity. 

The international importance achieved by your govern- 
ment and your country had its beginning when President 
Monroe gave to the world his famous doctrine, so debated, 
so misunderstood, and perhaps so dangerous, if — as has 
sometimes been thought — it might be used as a means of 
illegitimate preponderance at the expense of the sovereignty 
of other nations. The Monroe Doctrine embodies, neverthe- 
less, and we should not hesitate to say so, the first principle 
of international law of a great part of this continent, if not 
the whole. This it means for us Mexicans, ever since the 
President of the Republic announced it to Congress in his 
memorable message of April, 1896, received with general 
acclamation by the national representatives, and later by the 
whole country. The integrity of the nations of this conti- 
nent is of vital interest to all, collectively, and not alone to the 
country immediately affected. Any attack on this integrity 
should constitute an offense in the eyes of the other nations 
of America. Accordingly, one of our great thinkers and 
statesmen has wisely said: " America for Americans means 
each country for its own people, to the exclusion of all 
foreign interference, whether this comes from other countries 
of this continent or whether it comes from any other nation 
whatsoever. And we in our trying struggles of the past have 
given ample proof to the whole world of our homage to 
independence and our hatred of all foreign intervention " — 
to use President Diaz's own words. 

From among the various formulas adopted by the inter- 
preters of the Monroe Doctrine, we Latin American nations 
should gather and keep as a precious pledge, that which 
Theodore Roosevelt embodied in his famous speech delivered 
on the occasion of the opening of the Buffalo Exposition. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 173 

Addressing the republics of the New World, the illustrious 
statesman, then Vice-President of the United States of 
America, said: 

I believe with all my heart in the Monroe Doctrine. This doctrine is not , 
to be invoked for the aggrandizement of any one of us here on this conti- / 
nent at the expense of any one else on this continent.. It should be regarded ( 
simply as a great international Pan American policy, vital to the interests \ 
of all of us. The United States has and ought to have, and must ever f 
have, only the desire to see her sister commonwealths in the western 
hemisphere continue to flourish, and the determmation that no Old World 
power shall acquire new territory here on this western continent. We of 
the two Americas must be left to work out our own salvation along our 
own lines; and if we are wise we will make it understood as a cardinal 
feature of our joint foreign policy that, on the one hand, we will not submit 
to territorial aggrandizement on this continent by any Old World power, 
and that, on the other hand, among ourselves each nation must scrupu- 
lously regard the rights and interests of the others, so that, instead of any 
one of us committing the criminal folly of trying to rise at the expense of 
our neighbors, we shall all strive upward in honest and manly brotherhood, 
shoulder to shoulder. 

And you, honored sir, have not been less explicit. Your 
words, pronounced on a memorable occasion during your 
recent visit to South America, before all the free peoples of 
this continent gathered together at the third Pan American 
Conference, should be disclosed, should reach the ears of my 
fellow-citizens, for these very words of yours, as President 
Roosevelt solemnly declared in his last message to the Con- 
gress of the United States, have revealed to all who doubted 
the spirit of complete equality which inspired the Monroe 
Doctrine, what is the attitude of the United States towards 
the other American republics, and what its purposes. You 
declared then; 

We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our 
own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over oiu-selves. We deem 
the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of 
the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest 
empire; and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of 



174 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire 
any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every 
American republic. We wish to increase our prosperity, to expand our 
trade, to grow in wealth, in wistlom, and in spirit; hut our conception of the 
true way to accomplish this is not to pull down others and profit by their 
ruin, but to help all friends to a common prosperity and a common growth, 
that we maj' all become greater and stronger together. 

You spoke words of truth, and loiow, honored sir, that those 
are also our aspirations, those our aims; and thilher we wend 
our way, with the constant steadiness which the Mexican 
people showed in its struggles for liberty and the attainment 
of the great principles already embodied in our constitu- 
tion and laws. Deign to believe it, and when you return to 
the fatherland, pray do not ever forget that, if we have 
showered on you the hospitality such as is only offered to a 
friend, it is because your ideals are ours, because we citizens 
of this land, no less than those of yours, accept as the 
supreme dogma of our political religion the immortal words 
of President Lincoln, that " government of the people, by 
the people, and for the people shall not perish from the 

earth." 

Mr. Root's Reply 

I AM doubly sensible of the high honor which you have con- 
ferred upon me by this audience today. I am sensible also 
of the great mark of friendship to my country involved in 
the reception of one of her officers in this distinguished man- 
ner by the lawmaldng — the popular lawmaking — body of 
this great republic. I sincerely hope, not merely that I 
personally may never do aught to show myself unworthy of 
your consideration, but that my country may forever, in its 
attitude and conduct toward the people of Mexico, justify 
your kindness. 

You will gather from my words, which your president has 
been good enough to quote in the admirable and graceful 
address he has just made, that I am one of those who believe 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 175 

that the old days when nations sought to enrich themselves 
by taking away the wealth of others by force, ought to pass 
and are passing. I believe, and I am happy to know that 
the great mass of my countrymen believe, that it is not only 
more Christian, not only more honorable, but also more use- 
ful and beneficial for all nations, and especially all neighbor- 
ing nations, to unite in helping each other create more wealth, 
so that all may be rich and prosperous, rather than to seek 
to take it away from each other. 

I find here in this sanctuary of laws, in this body charged 
with making the laws, the most interesting, the most impor- 
tant, and the most sacred thing in the republic of Mexico. 
I am not unmindful of the diflSculties which confront you, 
gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, in the task that you 
perform for your country. The discussion of public ques- 
tions, the reconciliation of differing opinions, the adjustment 
of different local interests all over this vast country, the 
reaching of just conclusions, the compromises necessary so 
often between different interests, present to the members of 
a legislative body of a republic difficulties little understood 
by the people at large and requiring for their solution the 
highest order of ability, self-denial, and love of country. I 
beg you to take my testimony, coming from another land 
long engaged in grappling with the same kind of difficulties; 
I beg you to take my testimony that the troubles of your 
body in legislating for your country, and those which you are 
to encounter in the future, are not peculiar to your country, 
to your race, to your institutions, to your customs. They 
inhere in the task before every legislative body representing 
the vastly differing interests, opinions, sentiments, and 
desires of a people. 

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, 
it is my sincere desire and the desire of my countrymen, that 
in the performance of this task for the republic of Mexico 



176 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

you may be guided in wisdom and in peace. May you pos- 
sess that self-restraint which is so necessary to the preserva- 
tion and security for property, for enterprise, and for life, 
guarding you always from unwise extremes, leading you 
always to test every question of legislation by sound prin- 
ciples taught by history. May you always, and every one 
of you, be so inspired by love of country, that you may be 
able to sink all personal ambitions and interests, to do only 
that which is for the benefit of your country ; so that through 
your actions and inspired by your example the spirit of 
nationality which I see growing among the people of Mexico, 
may continue to increase until it is the living and controlling 
spirit of all the people from the Gulf to the Pacific. May 
you have in your deliberations and your action something of 
the self-sacrificing spirit of the humble priest Hidalgo, which, 
without ambition on his part, with no other motive but the 
love of his country, has written his name among the great 
benefactors of humanity. May you have something of the 
patriotism and genius of Benito Juarez, which enabled him 
with his strong hand to take INIexico out of the conditions of 
warring factions when individual ambition rose above the 
love of country. May you have something of that constancy 
and high courage which has made for the soldier and the 
statesman who now sits in the chair of the chief magistrate 
of Mexico, a place in history above scores and hundreds of 
emperors and kings with high-sounding title and no record 
in life but the desire for personal advancement. 

And so, members of the Chamber of Deputies — may I 
say, my friends — brothers in the work of seeking by law 
to advance the peace and prosperity of mankind — may you 
be able to bring in the rule of justice, of ordered liberty, of 
peace, of happy homes, of opportunity for children to rise, 
of opportunity for old age to pass its days in peace. My 
brother workers in the cause of popular government, of 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 177 

human rights and human happiness, I thank you for the 
opportunity to say, " God bless you in your labors ", which 
will always have my sympathy and the sympathy of my 
people. 

LUNCHEON BY THE AMERICAN COLONY 

Speech of General C. H. M. y Agramonte 
At the Mexican Country Club, October 4, 1907 

As chairman of a committee of the American colony, the 
pleasant duty devolves upon me to welcome, in behalf of the 
colony, an illustrious countryman, and a prominent member 
of the official family of the President of the United States, 
the Secretary of State. 

The opportunity has been afforded us through one of those 
many acts of exquisite courtesy for which the Government of 
Mexico is noted in its intercourse with those of us from north 
of the Rio Grande, and to which unfailing courtesy we can all 
bear witness. 

For the kindly spirit that actuated the Mexican Govern- 
ment in breaking in upon the official program for the enter- 
tainment of its guest — our countryman — and placing him 
in our hands for this occasion, we are extremely grateful. 
For the graceful act of the Mexican Country Club in permit- 
ting us the use of this magnificent building in which to 
entertain our guest there is no lack of appreciation. 

As Americans, knowing our own people and our own coun- 
try as we do, and keenly alive to everything that may obtain 
for its weal or its woe, our very absence from it making our 
hearts grow fonder of it, the joy we feel in welcoming one 
who has held the bright banner of our country full high 
advanced, is greater than any words of mine can express. 

We love our country; we love it as the blessed consumma- 
tion of human hopes. The world has been full of sorrow. 
The tearful eyes of humanity have never been dry; but in this 



178 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

western world, on this new continent, stretching from ocean 
to ocean, in the maturity of the ages has come forth a nation 
whose institutions and example shall aid in lifting the nations 
of the world into the sunlight of God's glorious liberty. 

We have no king, no royal family upon which can be cen- 
tered the loyal emotions of a great people. To us the only 
representative of the whole people is the glorious banner 
" thick sprinkled " with stars and striped with vivid red and 
white. 

You, sir, have held aloft that banner. You have added to 
the glory of our country. 

On the sacred field of Gettysburg, ground consecrated by 
torrents of American blood, Abraham Lincoln, President of 
the United States, gave to us a classic which will live while 
our country exists. You, sir, in your exposition of the atti- 
tude of the United States toward other countries, have 
enunciated a classic that also will live and be a bond of 
friendship between us and all the nations of this hemisphere. 

Gentlemen, I will read to you that classic: 

We wish for no victories but those of peace; for no territory except our 
own; for no sovereignty except the sovereignty over ourselves. We deem 
the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of 
the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest 
empire; and we deem the observance of that respect the chief guaranty of 
the weak against the oppression of the strong. We neither claim nor desire 
any rights or privileges or powers that we do not freely concede to every 
American republic. 

With such dignified sentiments resounding in our ears, 
have we not reason to be proud of our guest ? 

And now, sir, in the name of the American colony of 
Mexico, I bid you welcome. Yes, thrice welcome! May every 
choice blessing attend upon you and those you hold dear. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 179 

Mr. Root's Reply 

It is a long way from the Bowery, but I feel quite at home ! 
It is delightful to feel that my country is represented in this 
land of beauty by so many handsome and cheerful-looking 
men; it is delightful to see the evidences of prosperity in every 
American here, and it is dehghtful to see that that subtle, 
indefinable quickening of spirit that comes from separation 
has given to each of you, exiles in a foreign land, a new signifi- 
cance in every star and stripe and every reference to the old 
flag and the old home. 

Your welcome is very grateful to me; your kind expres- 
sions I most heartily reciprocate. I do not wish to return 
evil for good by preaching, but it occurs to me that you have 
— I will not say that you have left your country for your 
country's good — you have not abandoned your opportu- 
nities to serve her; you have rather reached the position 
where you have new opportunities for service as American 
citizens. One serious fault which formerly existed to a very 
great extent among Americans, and which has been growing 
less, was a certain provincial and narrow way of looking at 
foreigners. There was a good deal of truth underlying the 
observations and characterizations of Mr. Dickens which 
made our people so angry sixty or seventy years ago. One 
of our American humorists refers to the people of a western 
mining camp as looking upon a newcomer with the idea that 
he had the defective moral quality of being a foreigner. Now 
the residuum of that old feeling stands in the way of Ameri- 
can trade and American intercourse generally with other 
nations. No one can do more to hasten the disappearance of 
that attitude than you who have experienced the friendship 
and kindliness of the people of this foreign country; you who 
have learned by your personal experience how many and 
how noble are the characteristics of this foreign people; you 



180 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

who have been able to see how much we Americans may well 
learn from them; you can, each one of you, be a teacher of 
your countrymen in your continued intercourse with your 
homes and your home associates in the gospel of courtesy 
and kindliness toward all mankind. 

There is one other thought that comes naturally to my 
mind. You not only have not abandoned your duties 
toward your country by coming to this foreign land, but 
you have acquired new duties toward the community and 
the nation which has given you welcome and shelter and 
prosperity. There is underlying all the materialism and the 
hard practical sense of the American people regulating its 
own government for its own interests — there is underlying 
that a certain idealism which carries a conception of a mis- 
sionary calling to spread through the length and breadth of 
the world the blessing of justice and liberty and of the insti- 
tutions which we believe make for human happiness and 
human progress. That mission is to be fulfilled, not by 
making speeches and the giving of advice, the writing of 
books, or even the publication of newspapers; it can best be 
fulfilled by personal influence and intercourse of men one 
with another. No American who is in a foreign land can 
help representing his country; its honor and its good name 
rest upon each one of us the moment we cross the border. 
You not only represent your country, but you have a duty 
to perform toward the country in which you live, giving to 
her and to her people through your efforts and all your 
association the best contribution that your training as 
American citizens, that the traditions of centuries of Ameri- 
can life enable you to give, toward the maintenance of law 
and order, toward the promotion of all ideas that you have 
been taught in your youth to consider sacred, toward holding 
up the hands of authority, toward the inculcation of the 
sentiment of loyalty, toward the perpetuity of the govern- 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 181 

ment which gives you security for your lives and your 
property in your new home. 

I have one prominent thought in meeting you today; it 
is, while you continue to be good, loyal American citizens, 
you should be good and loyal Mexican residents. I can no 
better voice the sentiment of all of my countrymen here I 
know, and I can no better represent the feelings of our friends 
who remain at home, than by asking you to rise and join me 
in drinking to the long continuance of life, strength, and 
usefulness for the man who, more than any other, or all 
others, has given you the opportunities that you now enjoy. 
President Porfirio Diaz. 

MEXICAN ACADEMY OF LEGISLATION AND 
JURISPRUDENCE 

Speech of Licentiate Luis Mendez 

President of the Academy 
At the Installation of Mr. Root as an Honorary Member, October 4, 1907 

Honored Sir: Because of the office I am temporarily hold- 
ing, I am given the unexpected honor of placing in your 
hands the diploma that entitles you to honorary membership 
in the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence. 

You have come to the country of snowy mountains and 
flowering valleys which perfume our tropical breezes, pre- 
ceded by the meritorious fame of having preserved always, 
unblemished during the course of your fruitful life, the 
reputation and profession of a lawyer, of having penetrated 
the secrets of the juridical science and of consecrating today 
all your energies and abilities to the service of your country. 

By a happy coincidence, you will find engraved in this 
parchment as our motto: " Professional Honor, Science, and 
Country " — the same great ends that have consecrated 
your life. Never was the diploma bearing this motto 
conferred upon a more meritorious or greater man. 



182 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

In science, you have not been the selfish investigator nor 
in the service of your country have you confined yourself to 
directing from your place in the Cabinet the important 
matters of the foreign relations of a world-power. 

Knowing that the time has passed for studies merely 
speculative, and that at the present day every scientific 
truth cannot be such unless it is applicable, you have most 
happily found time to scatter the treasures of your studies, 
either when carrying them as the apostle of peace and concord 
to other countries, or through your invaluable publications. 

The Academy could hardly be indifferent to this phase 
of your labors, as we owe to it the great satisfaction of know- 
ing you intellectually and personally; and we pay you our 
profound respect. 

Therefore, selecting from among your works the last you 
have published, entitled The Citizen's Part in Government,^ it 
was agreed that we should offer you a translation of the same, 
in the hope that it may please you as it comes from the able 
and learned pen of an Academician for whom you have 
shown particular friendship prior to this time, and who feels 
for you the just admiration expressed in the eloquent words 
of welcome that we have all seconded. 

We find in this illuminating work of yours the double 
revelation of the genius that pursues the development of a 
great idea, and of the generous heart that instills it with an 
ardor that will make it successful. 

I will not take the liberty, Mr. Secretary, of commenting 
on the selection made by the Academy; but I can assure 
you that the collection of your lectures at Yale Univer- 
sity, appear to me worthy, for the clear observation and 
teaching they contain, to be designated as the text-book 

^ Yale lectures on the Responsibilities of Citizenship, 1907. See also: Addresses 
on Government and Citizenship, by Elihu Root; pp. 3-76. Harvard University 
Press, 1916. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 183 

to be read in all schools by youths preparing to exercise 
the rights of citizenship. Therefore, I beg you, kindly to 
accept the special copy of this translation presented by the 
Academy. 

Among those who devote themselves to the study of science 
in general, Mr. Secretary, and more particularly among those 
who cultivate one special branch, is formed a sort of fra- 
ternity of feelings and afiFections — the fruit of the com- 
munion of ideas — and also of respect caused in every really 
broad man, for the talents and learning of others. 

This fraternal feeling has always existed among the 
jurists of all nations, and in every language there is a word to 
describe it: comfanero, in our Castilian tongue; confrere, in 
French; and in yours, the most virile and the most expres- 
sive, you use the word brother. 

As a brother, therefore, this Academy has the honor to 
receive you in its midst. Foreign though it is by virtue of its 
by-laws to all matters of militant politics, the Academy 
hopes and desires that, forgetting for a moment the high 
official functions with which you are vested and recalling the 
happy times when you were simply a lawyer, you may come 
to us to aid with your vast knowledge and generosity of 
character, in the success of this ideal: " Justice among men 
and justice among nations." 

We hope, sir, that when once more in the calm of your 
honored home, far from the madding crowd and the cares 
of business, in the company of the two beings most dear to 
you, who as a blessing may come to your side to fill your 
affections and to venerate your white head; when in that 
tranquillity of the soul you may recall the incidents of your 
busy life, we hope that the recollection of the brief days you 
are passing among us may be pleasing, and that in the depths 
of your heart you may be able to say: " I went to Mexico in 
search of friends, and I fomid brothers." . . . 



184 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

Members of the Academy, and Committees of Scientific 
Societies, and all you who have kindly contributed with your 
presence to enhance the solemnity of this function in honor 
of an illustrious lawyer: this is a time when he who gives gains 
more than those who receive. Let us all greet the reception 
of the new Academician! 

Speech of Licentiate JoaquIn D. Casasus 

The Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence has 
intrusted me with the most gratifying task of expressing in 
its name its good wishes for your safe arrival in our midst, 
and of voicing the joy it experiences at being afforded the 
opportunity of publicly testifying to the high respect and 
esteem in which it holds the great statesman, the eminent 
jurisconsult, and the illustrious orator who in his position as 
Secretary of State of the United States of America is now 
amongst us, the distinguished guest of the Mexican nation. 

Had I taken into account solely my own merits, notably 
deficient, especially when measured by the side of those pos- 
sessed by the other members composing our academy, I 
should have refused such a high distinction. 1 thought, how- 
ever, 1 could discern in its resolution the marked purpose 
that its homage should reach your ears through the echoes 
of a friend's voice, and so be all the more welcome to you. 
With this reason, therefore, in mind, I did not hesitate to 
accept it. Nay, more; this has made me think once and 
again that the abundant proofs of your good-will — for which 
I shall ever remain indebted to you — the very base and 
foundation of our friendship, were those which you earnestly 
desired to convey to Mexico in the person of him who was 
then its representative in Washington. 

The Mexican people, from the very moment in which you 
set foot on their soil, and our Government from the time it 
tendered you the invitation that your visit to Latin America 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 185 

should have in Mexico its fitting end and crowning point, 
have proved to you, in abundant measure, by manifestations 
of every kind, that their earnest desire is that the ties which 
have for so many years bound us to your country, united by 
common interests and strengthened by common ideals, 
should every day grow closer and closer. They have also 
applauded the constant zeal shown by your Government in 
fostering relations more and more cordial with the republics 
of America, so that, inspired by the same spirit and guided 
by the same policy, they should make this western continent 
of ours the arena of the peaceful struggle of human effort. 
Nor do we deny you the enthusiastic and universal praise of 
which your labor as Secretary of State of the United States 
of America is deserving, since the program of your inter- 
national policy, later incorporated by President Roosevelt 
into his last message to Congress, found a sympathizing echo 
in every Mexican heart; that program which you made 
known to the world when, having the Pan American con- 
ference for your tribune and the whole of America grouped 
around you for your audience, we were all welcomed on the 
hospitable soil of the noble and heroic Brazilian people. 

Nevertheless, the Mexican Academy of Legislation and 
Jurisprudence, while recognizing your merits as a statesman, 
has desired to confine itself to honoring the lawyer who has 
brought fame and glory to the American bar, the jurisconsult 
who has won the unstinted admiration of all the nations 
ruled by democratic institutions, and the orator whose 
eloquence takes us back to the times of the Latins, be his 
voice resounding in the courts of justice, or heard in the 
academies and universities, or pealing forth clear and 
inspired in the popular tribune. 

You, honored sir, we regard as the perfect type of the 
law^-er who has known how to perform the sacred task com- 
mended to him by modern society. The lawyer is a priest 



186 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

whose duty it is, in the bitter battles of life waged by human 
conflicting interests, to fulfill a mission of peace and harmony. 
He is indeed, the champion of homes when persecuted by 
human cruelty; he who strengthens the bonds of love which 
maintain the family union untainted, when the depravity of 
customs threatens its downfall. In stretching out a helping 
hand to the toiler he is ever a master; in carrying out an 
equitable distribution of fortunes made, an adviser; in pro- 
claiming the respect due to the law, an example and an 
authority in maintaining its prestige in the social community. 
His knowledge should be an arsenal from which to arm the 
weak and a shield with which to protect the powerful; his 
voice should be beseeching in its pleading for pardon from 
society for those who by their crimes undermine its founda- 
tions, but inexorable in its demand when in the name of 
society he calls for punishment. To the poor who strive to 
defend the bread earned for their children, he is a stay; 
to the rich who worry over productive investment for their 
fortunes, a guide; and if, in the errors committed by both 
sides and which ever tend to separate them, he should be 
equity; then to put an end to the struggles into which they 
will irreparably be drawn, he must ever be justice itself. 

And you have been all this in your exemplary life of 
lawyer; this is what has won for you the love of the poor, the 
confidence of the rich, and the respect of the whole of society; 
which has placed you in the fore rank of the distinguished 
men of the American bar, from which only the pressing need 
of serving the greater political interests of your country could 
draw you. 

Your important labors as a statesman and jurisconsult do 
not call forth our admiration any the less. 

The jurisconsult of our days is not only he who in the 
Roman Forum ex solio tanquam ex tripode solved the conflicts 
which arose from the applying of the law; because now 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 187 

the part taken by the people in governmental affairs and the 
ever-increasing necessities of democratic life have widened 
his sphere of injfluence, and he has become to society what the 
lawyer has been to the individual and the family. The 
jurisconsult is a mentor of nations; in the midst of our 
eagerness to achieve greater prosperity and in our constant 
wrestle as citizens to form part of the public administration, 
he it is who points out the path of our social and political life, 
and has to dictate the laws which should conform to our 
customs as well as those which should be necessary to deter- 
mine its evolution. He it is who, standing in the prow, with 
gaze fixed on the distant horizon, steers the ship through 
the paths which guide nations to the haven of greater 
prosperity. 

And you belong to the assembly of jurisconsults who are 
the glory and pride of the American continent. 

Still fresh in men's minds are the honors you reaped in 
Yale University with the course of lectures you delivered on 
the part to be taken by citizens in the government. Your 
lessons have taught what are the rights to be exercised by 
citizens in nations ruled by democratic institutions and what 
their duties in order that governments should be the true 
representatives of the people's will. 

But again, the academy deems it but just to accord all 
honor to the great orator whose voice all America has been 
heeding with universal approval for more than a year; heed- 
ing, because that voice has ever been the expression of the 
lofty ideals which America has been pursuing from the earliest 
days of her freedom and independence. 

Nor is your eloquence the fruit of meditation and study; 
it savors not, like that of Demosthenes, of the midnight oil. 
It is fresh and spontaneous, such as ought to be at the com- 
mand of men ever ready to speak to the people of their rights 
and duties in democracies. It abounds always in that cold 



188 LATIN AIVIERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

reasoning and that inflexible logic which alone can persuade 
and convince. 

But your eloquence contains, besides, all the warmth, all 
the majesty, and all the sparkle of the Latin eloquence. 

Plutarch relates, in his life of Cicero, that when the great 
orator thrilled the inhabitants of Rhodes with his speeches, 
Apollonius Molon, after listening to him one day, showed no 
sign of admiration, but that when Cicero had finished he said: 
" Cicero, I, no less than the others, praise and admire thee; 
but I weep for the fate of Greece, for thou hast taken to Rome 
the best that was left to Greece — wisdom and eloquence." 

We in Latin America, less selfish than Apollonius Molon, 
do not weep; rather do we cheer and reward the orator from 
whose lips we have heard resound the accents of the Latin 
eloquence. 

The Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence, 
on presenting you today with the diploma which confers 
upon you the degree of honorary member, has desired to 
make known to the whole country your undoubted merits as 
lawyer, jurisconsult, and orator, and on this solemn occasion 
to bestow upon you its highest possible distinction. 

Welcome to our midst. May your visit to Mexico be 
fruitful in good results to both countries; may it be, above 
all, one more tie to bind the sincere and unshaken friendship 
which unites them both; and, since it is the end of your 
triumphal journey to Latin America, may it add, in your 
great career as a statesman, fresh fame to your labor and 
glory to your illustrious name. 

Mr. Root's Reply 

I AM highly appreciative of the very great honor which you 
have now conferred upon me. It is all the more grateful to 
me that in the ceremony which makes me an associate of 
this distinguished body, so prominent a part should be taken 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 189 

by a gentleman who, as the representative of Mexico in the 
capital of the United States, has not only taught me to admire 
his rare intellectual ability, but has won from me, by the 
grace and purity of his character, the warmth of friendship 
which adds especial pleasure to every new association with 
him into which I can enter. I feel, sir, that the compliment 
which you have paid to this little work of mine, produced 
without any idea that it should receive so distinguished an 
honor or find its way so far from home, I must ascribe rather 
to friendship than to any intrinsic merit of the work; but I 
thank you, and I am most appreciative of the honor that 
you do me in causing it to be translated into Spanish and 
making it the subject of your resolution. 

Circumstances have not permitted, and do not permit, 
that I should present to the Academy any thesis or discussion 
adequate to be associated with the admirable and well-con- 
sidered papers which have been read by Mr. Casasus and 
yourseK. I wish, however, in addition to expressing my 
thanks, to indicate in a few words the special significance 
which this academy and my new association with it seem 
to me to have. We are passing, undoubtedly, into a new 
era of international communication. We have turned our 
backs upon the old days of armed invasion, and the people 
of every civilized country are constantly engaged in the 
peaceable invasion of every other civilized country. The 
sciences, the literature, the customs, the lessons of experience, 
the skill, the spirit of every country, exercise an influence 
upon every other. In this peaceful interchange of the prod- 
ucts of the intellect, in this constant passing to and fro 
of the people of different countries of the civilized world, we 
find in each land a system of law peculiar to the country 
itself, and answering to what I believe to be a just descrip- 
tion of all laws which regulate the relations of individuals 
to each other, in being a formulation of the custom of the 



190 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

civil community. These systems of law differ from each 
other as the conditions, the customs of each people differ 
from those of every other people. But there has arisen in 
recent years quite a new and distinct influence, producing 
legal enactment and furnishing occasion for legal develop- 
ment. That is the entrance into the minds of men of the 
comparatively new idea of individual freedom and individual 
equality. The idea that all men are born equal, that every 
man is entitled to his life, his liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; the great declarations of principle designed to 
give effect to the fundamental ideas of liberty and equality, 
are not the outcome of the conditions or customs of any par- 
ticular people, but they are common to all mankind. 

Before the jurists and lawj^ers of the world there lies the 
task of adapting each special system of municipal law to 
the enforcement of the general principles which have come 
into the life of mankind within so recent a time, and which 
are cosmopolitan and world-wide and belong in no country 
especially. These principles have to be fitted to your laws 
in Mexico and our laws in the United States and to the 
French laws in France and the German laws in Germany; 
and the task before the jurists and lawj^ers of the world is to 
formulate, to elaborate, to secure the enactment and the 
enforcement of such practical provisions as will weld together 
in each land the old system of municipal law, which regulates 
the relations of individuals with each other in accordance 
with the time-honored traditions and customs of the race 
and country, and these new principles of universal human 
freedom. 

Now, that task is something that cannot be accomplished 
except by scientific processes, by the study of comparative 
jurisprudence, by the application of minds of the highest 
order in the most painstaking and practical way. In the adap- 
tation of these new ideas common to all free people, the 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 191 

best minds of every people should assist every other people 
and receive assistance from every other people. The study 
of comparative jurisprudence, apparently dry, purely scienti- 
fic, is as important to the well-being of the citizen in the 
streets of Mexico or Washington, as those scientific observa- 
tions and calculations which seem to be purely abstract have 
proved to be to the mariner on the ocean or the engineer of 
the great works of construction which are of such practical 
value; and we ought to promote by the existence of societies 
of this character in every civilized land and the free inter- 
course and intercommunication of such societies, the exis- 
tence of such a spirit of comradeship between them that 
they can freely give and take the results of their labors, of 
their experience, and of their skill. 

This is of immense practical importance in the administra- 
tion of government and the progress of ordered liberty in 
the world; for, after all, the declaration of political principles 
is of no value unless laws are framed adequate to bring 
principles down to the practical use of every citizen, and the 
framing of such laws in every land is the work of the jurists 
of the land. It is because I may be associated with you in 
doing what little a lawyer can do toward helping to the 
accomplishment of this great, beneficent, and necessary work 
for civilization, that I find the greatest pleasure in accepting 
your election as a member of this Academy, and find cause for 
gratification beyond that of mere personal vanity or personal 
feeling. 

Permit me to express the warmest good wishes for the con- 
tinued activity, prosperity, and usefulness of this distinguished 
body which has so greatly honored me by this election. 



192 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

BANQUET OF THE AMERICAN AMBASSiXDOR 

Speech of Ambassador Thompson 

October 5, 1907 

Probably not before has there been such a gathering of dis- 
tinguished men as are tonight seated at this table at the foot 
of the famous Castle of Chapultepec. The honored Secre- 
tary of State of the American nation is here, the guest of the 
great Mexican Republic, with such honors showered upon 
him as should not and will not soon be forgotten by a friendly 
and appreciative people, nor by the immediate recipient of 
Mexico's greeting. 

Personally, I feel, I am sure, no less satisfaction than Mr. 
Root on this occasion, a dinner given by me in honor of chiefs 
of the Mexican nation and other distinguished Mexicans, 
for the purpose of demonstrating, as best I can, my regard for 
them, not only because of the very great honor Mexico is 
doing my country and my chief, but in part for many kindly 
and friendly acts of the past. That the chiefs of staff of the 
Mexican President, and many other high officials of nation 
and state, have responded to an invitation with their pres- 
ence on this occasion, thus further honoring my country, 
Mr. Root, and myself, calls for an expression of good-will that 
I offer as a toast to Mexico and its illustrious President, 
General Diaz. 

Response of Vice-President Corral 

In the name of my colleagues in the Mexican Cabinet and 
other national functionaries, invited to this banquet, I thank 
you for this very gracious distinction. 

I consider myself very fortunate to address such a dis- 
tinguished gathering in these memorable moments, when 
the Mexican public offers its hospitality to the honorable 
Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Elihu Root, one 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 193 

of the most eminent men in the world, both for his wisdom 
and his political works, as a defender of the rights of nations, 
and as the courageous knight of American democracy and 
universal peace. 

It is very satisfactory for Mexico to demonstrate her 
sympathy to a guest of such high merit; and I assure you, 
Mr. Ambassador, that his visit to this country will create new 
and stronger bonds of durable friendship between the two 
sister republics of North America, and will be a new element 
of the highest value, in the mission of concord you have 
accomplished with such great ability, and which is a pro- 
found cause of satisfaction to us. 

I thank you once more for your good wishes for Mexico 
and the President of our republic; and, in my turn, I have 
the honor to invite all present to raise their cups to the 
powerful nation, the United States, and to its great President, 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I APPRECIATE the high honor conferred upon me by the 
presence of the Vice-President, the members of the Cabinet, 
and so many representatives of foreign nations, so many of 
whom are old acquaintances of mine. It is very pleasing to 
me to find myself among you, as the guest of the official 
representative of the United States in Mexico. 

I beg you to join me in a sentiment which is not personal 
— the economic cooperation of Mexico and the United 
States. This is a sentiment which will be concurred in by all 
those present, as it will redound to the benefit of all civilized 
countries who are engaged in commercial pursuits. I hope 
that the development of progress may follow its course to the 
end that the two countries adjoining each other for thousands 
of miles, may, by means of mutual commerce, interchange of 
capital, labor, and the fruits of intelligence and experience, 



194 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

attain the results reached by the states of the American 
Union, regardless of the distance between us, because of our 
mutual cooperation. The signs of the times, as I understand 
them, show a possibility of an increase in the relations between 
the two countries, situated so closely on this continent. The 
whole world has reached a state of progress which renders 
possible better economic, political, and social relations. A 
repetition of the war of 1846 between Mexico and the United 
States would be impossible today; — it would be impossible 
because the progress of each country, the experience, the pru- 
dence of their governments, the knowledge of the business of 
Mexico would prevent it; general public sentiment in the 
United States would also be opposed to it. 

The European invasion of Mexico, in the year 1861, would 
be impossible today; no one of the three nations would have 
any thought of attempting it today. An attempt to estab- 
lish an empire here neither would nor could be thought of 
as possible. 

The whole world has advanced to a degree when inter- 
national relations and interchange of courtesies between 
nations have facilitated the establishment of peaceful corre- 
spondence, which would not have been possible before, 
because of the want of a stability in their relations. 

The desire to advance a degree towards the assurance of 
intimate relations and greater friendship has caused us to 
accept with pleasure the kindly and gracious invitation of 
President Diaz to visit Mexico — a visit which shall remain 
a source of pleasure during all of my life, and during which 
I have received proofs of friendship and kindness and gener- 
ous hospitality beyond anything I expected, and for which 
I beg you, citizens of Mexico, to kindly accept my sincerest 
gratitude. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 195 

Response of Senor Licenciado Don Jose Ives Limantour 

Minister of Finance 

You have come to this country with the assurance, often 
reiterated and always received with applause, of close and 
sincere brotherly feeling between our two countries, the 
permanence of which is guaranteed by our common ideals 
and our mutual respect. 

Your mission challenges our warmest sympathy. Voices 
more authoritative than mine have informed you of this fact, 
and the attitude of the Mexican people is its corroboration. 
You have been the apostle of a grand idea, the most vital, 
perhaps, of any affecting the international politics of this 
continent and assuredly the only one capable of harmonizing 
the interests and the hearts of all the inhabitants of the New 
World. This idea consists in laying down, as the invariable 
basis for the relations of the countries of America with one 
another, the sacred principles of justice, and the territorial 
integrity of each one of them. 

Such being the pledge which we have from your lips, and 
feeling confident that the immense majority of your country- 
men endorse the declaration to that effect made by you 
during your memorable journey of last year, and during the 
journey that is now in progress, we welcome you as one 
welcomes a loyal and disinterested friend, without the mental 
reservation that one sometimes feels in clasping the hand of 
the great, and moved by the hope of thus contributing, in the 
best manner possible, to us, towards the realization of an aim 
that is commended by a high and enlightened patriotism. 

Mexico's course for the future is clearly marked out, at any 
rate as far as human foresight can safely reach. Her geo- 
graphical situation and the conditions governing the inter- 
national politics of America assure her, as long as the views 
which you have proclaimed with a conviction so sincere, 



196 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

predominate in your country, the tranquillity in her inter- 
national relations which she needs in order to devote herself 
to intellectual culture and to the development of her abun- 
dant and varied natural resources, while at the same time 
offering hospitality to all well-meaning persons who bring 
here their contingent of industry and civilization. With a 
program such as this, it has been easy — and will be still 
more easy in the future — to regulate our conduct towards 
you, the citizens of the great nation beyond the Rio Grande. 
You will always be welcome, as it is right and proper that 
useful and agreeable neighbors who give proofs of their desire 
to be on good terms and to cooperate in all of the works of 
progress, should be; and I believe that you are quite con- 
vinced that both out of interest and good-will, the ^Mexican 
people will offer you every facility that may enable you to 
take an active part in the social and economic development 
of this republic. 

It is far from my thoughts, at the present moment, to extol 
the virtues and the good qualities of my countrymen. I may 
be permitted, however, as a minister of finance, to say a few 
words in regard to one or two economic facts that have an 
important bearing on business relations. 

Mexico, at the present time, as you well know, is not a 
country exclusively engaged in mining and farming, but also 
carries on an extensive commerce and possesses fairly 
prosperous manufacturing industries. There are many lines 
of activity demanding industry, intelligence, and capital, and 
there is an ample field for the utilization of all elements of 
that nature coming to us from abroad. But a point which all 
persons interested in Mexico's business affairs will do well to 
realize is the honesty and prudent habits which character- 
ize mercantile transactions in this country. " Booms " and 
" bluffs " are exotic plants which can with difficulty be 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 197 

acclimatized here, and speculative combinations rarely enter 
into the calculations of the merchant. 

A single example will suffice to illustrate the characteristics 
to which I am referring. In that period of stress from 1892 
to 1894 when the country, after suffering the loss of several 
harvests in succession and the ravages of a severe epidemic, 
was further tried by sudden depreciation of silver, which in 
the course of a few months cut the gold value of our cur- 
rency in half, every one thought that the economic con- 
stitution of the nation would not be able to withstand shocks 
so repeated and formidable; and yet we continued to meet 
our debts with religious punctuality and it was noted with 
surprise that not a single failure of importance occurred in 
any part of the republic. 

We may be charged with undue timidity, with slender 
experience, in certain methods that are common elsewhere 
in the initiation of business undertaking. But these deficien- 
cies and others w^hich no doubt are ours will not debar us, let 
us hope, from being permitted to join the grand onward 
march of humanity, and particularly of that portion of the 
human family inhabiting the New World, towards higher 
conditions of physical and moral welfare. 

Gentlemen, let us raise our glasses to the health and 
happiness of our distinguished guest and his most estimable 
family. Let us drink to the hope that his countrymen, 
taking to heart the gospel which he has proclaimed through- 
out the length and width of America, may become the firmest 
guarantors of lasting peace between the two nations, con- 
solidated by warmth of mutual regard and the continued 
growth of common interests. ^ 



198 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

BANQUET OF THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFMRS 

Speech of Licentiate Igxacio Mariscal 

October 7, 1907 

Your presence amongst us as our illustrious guest is an event 
which will leave a mark in the history of Mexico, for yours 
is not only the visit of a most distinguished American, but 
also of the best representative, without the usual credentials, 
of a great government and a great people. The fact that 
your visit aims at no diplomatic business, except the tight- 
ening of the bonds of friendship between our two countries, 
has made it the more important and congenial to all Mex- 
icans. Some years ago we had here other prominent and 
representative Americans, such as General Grant and the 
Honorable William H. Seward, who came as friendly visi- 
tors wanting to know Mexico personally and be known by 
us. Their flying visits did a great deal of good in promoting 
official and popular relations, for they tended to a real sister- 
hood between the two republics of North America. Yours, 
sir, will complete that most important international work, 
since your high personality is eminently qualified, especially 
under the present circumstances, to increase the admiration 
and respect of all my thinking fellow-citizens for the country 
of Washington, Lincoln, and Grant. 

We know, sir, as the whole world knows, the considerable 
part you have taken in the peace-promoting, civilizing foreign 
policy of President Roosevelt, and we fully appreciate your 
frequent, unequivocal demonstrations of amicable feeling 
toward our government and our people. For that reason 
you have been cordially welcomed by us as a friend coming 
among true friends. May your brief sojourn in this country 
leave you a souvenir as pleasant as the one it has already 
engraved in our memory and our hearts. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 199 

Seeking to show you our sincere esteem and regard, I 
propose a toast to your honor, not as a ceremonious courtesy, 
but as a really heartfelt sentiment: 

"Brindemos, Seiiores, por nuestro ilustre huesped, el 
Honorable Senior Elihu Root." 

Mr. Root's Reply 

It is my happy fortune to reap where others have sown and 
enter into the fruits of others' labors. When Mr. Seward 
and General Grant visited Mexico, your people, sir, were 
little known to the people of the United States. The shadow 
of a war still recent in the memory of men hung over the 
relations that existed between the two countries, the shadow 
of a war which, thank Heaven, would now be impossible. 
The commanding personality of General Grant made his 
warm friendship for Mexico the beginning of a new era of 
feeling and appreciation on the part of the people of the 
United States; and now I come in response to the kind and 
hospitable invitation of your distinguished President, not to 
mark out the pathway to friendship, but as the representative 
of an existing feeling of friendship on the part of my country- 
men. 

I have been deeply appreciative of all the delicate courtesy, 
the warmth of friendship and hospitality which have wel- 
comed me and my family here. But I was not surprised. It 
is but in conformity with all the relations which have existed 
between the department of foreign affairs of Mexico and the 
department of foreign affairs of the United States, since you, 
sir, have held your present eminent position. 

I wish not merely to express grateful appreciation for the 
kindness I have received here, but to express the same senti- 
ment for all that you have done and all you have been in the 
relations between the two countries. The unvarying cour- 



200 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

tcsy, the genuine and sincere desire for the reasonable and 
friendly disposal of all questions that have arisen between 
the two countries, which have characterized the office of 
foreign affairs of Mexico have been a great factor in bringing 
about the happy relations that now exist. And we may say, 
with gratification, that there are no questions between 
Mexico and the United States which can give the slightest 
apprehension or cause the slightest concern as to their easy 
and satisfactory adjustment. 

Of course, between two countries with so long a common 
boundary, whose citizens are passing to and fro, whose citi- 
zens are investing money, each in the country of the other, 
questions are continually arising; but the all-important 
element for the decision of every question, the good under- 
standing, kindly feeling, and the habit of conducting relations 
upon the basis of reason and friendship, practically disposes 
in advance of all questions which can arise. 

I suppose it is impossible to read the history of any country 
without feeling that the mistakes in its history have been 
the result of a shortsighted, narrow view on the part of its 
statesmen, its rulers, its legislators, under the influence at a 
particular time of particular local conditions. 

We can all of us look back in the history of our own country 
and of other countries and see how we now, with a broader 
view and free from the prejudices of the hour, would settle 
questions and solve difficulties in a far more satisfactory way. 

I suppose that the true object which should be held before 
every statesman is so to deal with the questions of the 
present that the spirit in which they are solved will com- 
mend itself to the generations of the future. 

I think, sir, that the government of Mexico has attained 
that high standard of statesmanship to an extraordinary 
degree. It certainly has done so in its relations with the gov- 
ernment of the United States ; and as a result of the reason- 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 201 

able and kindly way in which we have been treating each 
other for these past years we behold not merely the fact 
that of your $240,000,000 of foreign trade, two-thirds of 
your exports are purchased by the United States and two- 
thirds of your imports are purchased from the United States; 
not merely that of your vast exports to the United States, 
notwithstanding our high protective policy, nine-tenths are 
free from all duty; not merely that $700,000,000 of capital of 
the United States has been invested in your thriving and pro- 
gressive enterprises, so that, while for three centuries and a 
haK the people of Mexico were hiding their wealth under the 
ground to keep it from being taken away from them, now for 
a quarter of a century you have been taking out from under 
the ground a wealth far surpassing any dreams of avarice 
in the days of old. But more than all that, there has grown up 
and is continually developing between the people of the two 
countries a knowledge of each other, an appreciation of each 
other, a kindly f eehng toward each other, which make for the 
perpetuity of good government in both countries and for 
the development of all the finer and better qualities of citizen- 
ship in both countries; which will help both of us to advance 
along the pathway of progress; which will make every school 
in Mexico in which the future government and rulers of this 
vast land are being trained a better school, and make every 
school in the United States a better school; which will 
make every officer conscious of being one of a community of 
nations, conscious of having in his charge the good name of 
the country which is known to the people of the whole conti- 
nent, a better officer than he would be if he were responsible 
only to his narrow community. As the result of these kindly 
relations we see two happy, progressive, prosperous nations; 
and, sir, it is my sincere hope that following the footsteps of 
the great Americans you have named, through your kindness 
and hospitality I may be able to add my little contribution 



202 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

toward this great work of national benefit and of inter- 
national advancement in the cause of liberty, justice, and 
humanity. 

FARE^^'ELL SUPPER GI\TN BY MR. ROOT 
Speech of Mr. Root 

October 7, 1907 

On the evening of the day of the banquet of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, on 
the lower terrace of the castle where a series of apartments had been assigned to his 
party, Mr. Root gave a farewell supper to the members of the Government, the 
diplomatic corps, the Entertainment Committee, and numerous other Mexican 
notables. 

This is the last opportunity I shall have in the City of 
Mexico to express to you my gratitude and keen apprecia- 
tion for all your very great kindness to us during our visit 
to Mexico. 

I came here with my mind filled by the idea of two coun- 
tries, the United States of America and the United Mexican 
States, rather an abstract and cold conception. Gradually 
there has emerged from the sea of faces that I looked upon 
on entering Mexico, one by one, a group of lovely women 
and of fine and noble gentlemen, and beside the conception 
of two countries becoming more and more friendly to each 
other, there has come a realization that I have gained new 
friends — a most grateful and most delightful thing. I shall 
never forget you, my friends; I shall never forget your 
courtesy and your kindness, and I know I can say the same 
for Mrs. Root, and I beg to offer a toast to the personnel 
of the administration of President Diaz, a personnel which 
is more delightful and will be met with more pleasure than 
it was possible for me to conceive before coming here, and 
as I leave you I shall feel that with my limited Spanish, which 
consists of not more than a half a dozen words, I have, how- 
ever, the most valuable words in the language in being able 
to say: " Hasta luego." 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 203 

Response of Senob Corral 

Seflor Ram6n Corral, Vice-President of the RepubUc, made the foUowing 
response to this farewell address: 

Since you have set foot on our soil we have had occasion to 
observe the high and well-merited opinion which you enter- 
tain of our president, General Porfirio Diaz, and of his splen- 
did and statesmanlike achievements, and if to this be added 
your own well-kno^Ti merits, your lofty character, and the 
sagacious, yet kindly notice you have taken of all that you 
have seen, no wonder that you have won, not our admiration, 
not our respect, not our good-will, for all these were yours 
ah-eady, but something more intimate, something that dwells 
deeper in the recesses of the heart — our affection. 

Henceforth, sir, in addition to your high claims as an 
illustrious statesman and wise administrator, you have from 
us the endearing title of friend, a friend who appreciates us 
with fairness, who will rejoice at our future triumphs in the 
arena of progress, who will lament our misfortunes, who 
will applaud our victories and will encourage us in our 
discomfitures. 

For some time past, especially since you undertook the 
noble task of proclaiming justice and righteousness as the 
basis for the relations of the repubhcs of America with one 
another, we have followed with the liveliest interest your 
glorious career, of which the goal is the promotion of ideals 
of human fraternity. We have admired you, we have 
applauded you as one applauds the eloquence of wise and 
good men. But henceforth a current of profound sympathy 
will flow between you and us, and our admiration and 
applause will reach you, quickened by the vibrations of our 
enthusiasm. 

Soon you will return to your own country, that splendid 
country where everything is great from the cataclysms of 



204 L.VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

nature to the manifestations of freedom. Our most fervent 
desire is that you may take away an impression of Mexico 
and of her people as agreeable and afifec'tionate as that which 
you leave behind, and that, in justice toward us, you will tell 
those among your countrymen who do not yet know us, that 
ours is a civilized nation, working out its greater welfare, 
educating itself intellectually, living and desiring to remain 
in peace with itself and in peace with all who respect its 
rights, — in a word, living up to its mission as a free and 
honorable community. Tell your President that in Mexico 
we appreciate and applaud his great and noble efforts in 
behalf of his country and in behalf of the peace of other 
nations, and that when his name is pronounced by us, it is 
pronounced with expressions of respect and homage for his 
good qualities. 

Receive, sir, these words, which are the expression of senti- 
ments that are sincere, as a new demonstration to yourself 
and to your distinguished family of our feelings of esteem and 
our desire for your happiness. 

PUEBLA 

Speech of General Mucio P. Martetoz 

GOVERNOK OF PuEBLA 

At a Banquet at the Municipal Palace, October 9, 1907 

A POETIC tradition of our aborigines has been kept, and still 
lives — transmitted from generation to generation of the 
races that people our wooded mountains and smiling plains; 
this tradition teaches us that to illustrious guests, above 
all to those who come like you as messengers of peace on 
earth and good-will to men, should be offered as an emblem 
of sincere and respectful affection, the richest of fruits, the 
handsomest of flowers, and the most delicious of dishes. 

A reception such as the one now being given to your excel- 
lency and those nearest and dearest to your heart, must be. 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 205 

no doubt, inferior in magnificence to the welcome tendered 
to such illustrious guests in other countries; but believe me, 
none has ever surpassed our sincerity, because Mexico, as it 
is the first to admire brilliant careers in politics, in science, in 
art, in industry, and in commerce, takes pleasure in offering 
you its most cordial attentions with no other desire than to 
make your stay in this republic as pleasing as possible and 
to show you that this country is an ardent admirer of yours 
and takes pleasure in calling itself a sister of the United States 
not only because of geographical contiguity, but also because 
of the liberty and freedom of its institutions. 

I therefore pray that your excellency accept this humble 
repast as a token of the most affectionate hospitality ten- 
dered you by me in the name of the people of Puebla, and I 
beg you to convey to the illustrious President of the American 
Union the brotherly regard we all have for him. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

I AM greatly pleased by this delicate hospitality which is 
like the traditional hospitality of the Mexican nation. I 
shall personally convey to President Roosevelt the message of 
cordial welcome and good-will shown by this city, and it will 
undoubtedly contribute to further the good work under- 
taken by President Roosevelt to uphold justice and protect 
the rights of humanity. I shall also bring to President Roose- 
velt's attention the assurances of this country to protect the 
happiness and prosperity of the people. I cannot help 
remembering that when foreigners came to Puebla in hostile 
manner they were shown that Puebla knows how to defend 
its rights. It is also pleasing to me to see the ability of the 
Mexican people to govern themselves: nations like Mexico 
and the United States which have given proof of this ability 
may well boast that they belong to those which form the 
vanguard of modern civilization. 



206 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

ORIZABA 

Speech of SeJJor D. Teodoro A. Dehesa 

Governor of the State of Vera Cruz 
At a Luncheon at the Cocolopan Factory, October 10, 1907 

In your honor, and as a testimony to your personal worth 
and sterling character, as a representative of the great 
American people, I take particular pleasure in tendering to 
you this lunch. The occasion gives rise to the thought that 
your Washington and our Hidalgo were the instruments 
chosen for planting the sacred tree of national independence 
now so deeply rooted in our respective countries, and which 
has brought forth the fruit of liberty to nourish the people 
of the United States and Mexico. 

Here in Orizaba you have seen, Mr. Secretary, some evi- 
dences of the material advances made by our country, which 
to a man of your broad views and lofty ideals I must believe 
are pleasing. These are blessings that we owe to peace. 
Those two great statesmen and lovers of peace — Roosevelt 
and Diaz — are one in desire and endeavor to preserve peace, 
not only to secure its benefits for their own people, but 
to extend its beneficent sway over the whole American 
continent. 

Such a purpose commands the respect and admiration of 
the world. I invite all present to join me in drinking to our 
illustrious and most welcome guest, whom we all so mujch 
admire for his many distinguished qualities — extending to 
him and to his charming family our best wishes for health 
and happiness. 

Reply of Mr. Root 

This cordial welcome has not been a surprise to me, as I 
already knew of the qualities of the Governor of Vera Cruz. 
By this time, I have become accustomed to the hospitable 
character of the Mexicans; but notwithstanding this, it has 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 207 

been very pleasing and gratifying to me to receive these 
demonstrations from the people of Vera Cruz whose frank- 
ness of disposition is well known. I appreciate your words 
very highly, Mr. Governor, and I thank you for them as I do 
the residents of Orizaba. 

It is but right for you Mexicans to remember Washington, 
as it is for us Americans to remember Hidalgo and the other 
heroes of Mexican history together with our own. I firmly 
believe that Mexico has passed beyond the state in which 
civil dissensions devastated this fortunate country, and that 
in the future there will be no door open to internal strife, 
thanks to the wise administration and foresight of the great 
statesman Porfirio Diaz. 

How true it is that the beautiful and the useful can be 
combined: here in Orizaba I find the proof of this truth, as 
in the midst of the natural beauty of the scenery offered by 
the exuberant vegetation and the lovely peak crowned with 
snow — the proud sentinel of the state of Vera Cruz — 
stand as signs of progress the important factories we have 
just visited. 

Mr. Governor, I feel grateful for the frank reception of 
which I have been the object, and I hope that Mexico will 
continue to progress and develop as well as the United States, 
and that both nations will render mutual assistance to each 
other and avail themselves of the prosperous or unprosperous 
occurrences adopting the one or the other as lessons of 
experience for humanity in order to demonstrate to natives 
and foreigners the excellences of the republican form of 
government. 



208 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

GUADALAJARA 

Speech of Governor Ahumada 

October 14, 1907 

Altiiough our president, General Porfirio Diaz, with the high 
international representation awarded him by our institu- 
tions, and by the personal adherence of all federal and state 
authorities, as well as by the love of the Mexican people in 
general, has already given a cordial welcome in the name of 
all of us, allow me, in the name of the state which I govern, 
to express to you the kind feelings of sympathy which exist in 
all hearts beating within this important section of our coun- 
try. Jalisco, INIr. Secretary, has always been a land that 
loves all that is great and useful for the country, and as 
during the time when we fought for independence and liberty 
it did not spare its sons, in the same way we want to join 
our voice to the voice of the people that from the bravo to 
the usumacinta praise and bless you, to take our share in the 
work for peace which you initiated during the Third Pan 
American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, which you continued 
by your visit to the main republics of South America, and 
which you are carrying to an end now by tokens of friendship 
you are giving to Mexico and the people of the state of 
Jalisco. The people of this state believe that the best way 
to take part in this labor is to tell you through me: " Wel- 
come be the noble emissary who, like the dove of the ark, 
brings the symbolic olive branch which announces that clouds 
have been dissipated and the sun of friendship is rising 
between the peoples of the new continent." 

We should have been pleased to have you among us a 
longer time, to give you better tokens of our esteem and to 
show you the high appreciation we feel for the people of the 
United States and her great ruler. President Roosevelt. But 
inasmuch as this is impossible, owing to your important and 



THE VISIT TO MEXICO 209 

urgent labors at home, allow me, Mr. Secretary, to state that 
if our demonstrations of friendship are short, they are made 
in the land of traditional frankness and true friendship. 

Let us drink, ladies and gentlemen, to the health of his 
excellency, Mr. Root, his distinguished wife, and his " sim- 
patica " daughter, and wishing for all of them all kinds of 
happiness, let us prove that we have shaken their hands in 
the spirit that sons of Jalisco always shake hands — our 
heart is our hand. 

Mr. Root's Reply 

I THANK you very heartily for your kind words, for your 
flattering description of myself, and for the spirit of friend- 
ship for my country which you exhibit. I am highly appre- 
ciative of all the hospitality, the warm welcome, and the 
graceful and most agreeable entertainment which you and 
your people of Guadalajara and of the state of Jalisco have 
given to my family and to myself. 

I think it is perhaps fitting that I should make the last ex- 
tended visit of all I have been making in Mexico, to the city 
of Guadalajara. The most striking feature of Mexican life to 
a stranger is that rare combination of history and progress 
which one finds. The two eras of history, the Spanish, and 
before that the Indian civilization, which has to so great an 
extent passed away, and beside that the modern develop- 
ment, the spirit of modem enterprise, the active progress 
of mining and agriculture and manufactures, the stimulus of 
sound finance, and the general determination of the people 
to take rank with the great productive nations of the earth, — 
nowhere have I found that combination more marked and 
distinct than I find it here in Guadalajara. As I said to 
you a short time ago, your excellency, the things that im- 
pressed me most on entering this city were, first, that it was 
clean; secondly, that there were many fine-looking people; 



210 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

thirdly, that it was cheerful; and, fourthly, that it had many 
beautiful buildings. I can add to that a fifth, that it is 
bright with the rainbow of hope for the fruits of its many 
enterprises. 

This may be the last time I rise to speak to any audi- 
ence in Mexico before my departure for my own country, 
and there are two things that I wish to say; one is, that 
nothing could have been more generous, more tactful, and 
more grateful to us than the hospitality and friendship 
which my family and I have received during the entire 
time since we crossed the border at Laredo. We are grateful 
for it, we are deeply appreciative of it. The other thing that 
I wish to say is that I have all the time since I came to 
Mexico been thinking about the question of the permanence 
of your new prosperity. I go back to my home encouraged 
and cheered by having found, as I believe, evidence, sub- 
stantial evidence, that the new prosperity of Mexico is not 
evanescent and temporary, but is permanent. I do not 
believe that Mexico will ever again return to the disorder 
of the condition which characterized the first sixty years of 
her independence. I believe that during this long period 
of peace and order which has been secured for your people 
by your great, w^se, strong President Diaz, there has grown 
up a new spirit among Mexicans and a new appreciation of 
individual duty to civilization in the maintenance of peace 
and order. 

So I go back, not only charmed with the beauty of your 
country, not only delighted with the opportunity to see 
the wonderful historic monuments you possess, not only 
delighted with the hospitality of your homes and charmed 
with the character of your people, but I go back with the 
feeling that the Mexican people have joined forever the 
ranks of the great, orderly, self-controlled, self-governing 
republics of the world. 



ADDRESSES 

IN THE UNITED STATES 

ON LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS 



THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE 
CONFERENCE 

In December, 1907, a Central American Peace Conference was held at Washington, 
between delegates representing the five Central American republics - Costa R.ca, 
Guatemala, Honduras. Nicaragua, and Salvador. Mexico and the United States 
were invited to participate in a friendly capacity and accepted the invitation. Ihe 
conference grew out of the initiative taken during the previous summer by the pres- 
idents of the United States and Mexico, in an endeavor to secure an adjustment of 
then pendmg disputes between several of these republics, m some form that would 
secure permanent peace among them and foster their development. The con- 
ference was caUed together by the foUowing note of the Secretary of State, addressed 

to the delegates: 

Department of bTATE, 

Washington, November 11, 1907. 

Excellencies: The plenipotentiaries of the five Central American republics 
of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador, appomted by 
their respective Governments in pursuance of the protocol signed m Washmg- 
ton on September 17. 1907, having arrived m the city of Washington for the 
purposes of the conference contemplated in the said protocol, I have the honor 
to request that the said plenipotentiaries, together with the representatives of 
the United Mexican States and of the United States of America, appomted 
pursuant to the second article of said protocol, convene m the buddmg of the 
Bureau of American Republics m the city of Washington, on the fourteenth 
day of November, instant, at half past two in the afternoon. 

I avaU myself of this opportunity to offer to Your Excellencies the assur- 
ances of my highest consideration. Elihu Root. 

The formal sessions of the conference began December 13, and closed December 
20. Durmg this period nine treaties and conventions were concluded between the 
five republics, as follows: 

1. A general treaty of peace and amity. 

2. A convention additional to the general treaty of peace and amity. 

8. A convention for the establishment of a Central American court of justice. 

4. A protocol additional to the convention for the establishment of a Central 

American court of justice. 

5. An extradition convention. 

6. A convention for the establishment of an International Central American 

Bureau. 

7. A convention for the establishment of a Central American pedagogical 

institute. 

8. A convention concermng future Central American Conferences. 

213 



214 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

9. A convention concerning railway conamunications. 

Tho most important were tlie general treaty of peace and amity, anci the conven- 
tion for tlie establishmen of a Central American court of justice. The texts of 
these various conventions arc found in Malloy's Treaties and Conveniioru oj the 
United States. Volume II, pp. 2391-2420. 

The Mexican Government was represented by His Excellency Sefior Don 
Knri<iue C. (reel, ambassador at Washington, and the United States by Honor- 
able William I. Huchanan. 

At the opening session of the conference Mr, Root made the following address: 

ADDRESS OPENING THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE 
1/ CONFERENCE. DECEMBER 13. 1907 

USAGE devolves upon me as the head of the Foreign 
Office of the country in which you are assembled to call 
this meeting together; to call it to order and to preside during 
the formation of your organization. I wish to express to you, 
at the outset, the high appreciation of the Government of the 
United States of the compliment you pay to us in selecting 
the city of Washington as the field of your labors in behalf 
of the rule of peace and order and brotherhood among the 
peoples of Central America. It is most gratifying to the peo- 
ple of the United States that you should feel that you will 
find here an atmosphere favorable to the development of the 
ideas of peace and unity, of progress and mutual helpfulness, 
in place of war and revolution and the retardation of the 
principles of liberty and justice. 

So far as a sincere and friendly desire for success in your 
labors may furnish a favorable atmosphere, you certainly 
will have it here. The people of the United States are sincere 
believers in the principles that you are seeking to apply to 
the conduct of your international affairs in Central America. 
They sincerely desire the triumph and the control of the 
principles of liberty and order everywhere in the world. 
They especially desire that the blessings which follow the 
control of those principles may be enjoyed by all the people 
of our sister republics on the western hemisphere, and we 
further believe that it will be, from the most selfish point of 



CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE 215 

view, for our interests to have peaceful, prosperous, and pro- 
gressive republics in Central America. 

The people of the United Mexican States and of the United 
States of America are now enjoying great benefits from the 
mutual interchange of commerce and friendly intercourse 
between the two countries of Mexico and the United States. 
Prosperity, the increase of wealth, the success of enterprise — 
all the results that come from the intelligent use of wealth — 
are being enjoyed by the people of both countries, through 
the friendly intercourse that utilizes for the people of each 
country the prosperity of the other. We in the United States 
should be most happy if the states of Central America might 
move with greater rapidity along the pathway of such pros- 
perity, of such progress; to the end that we may share, 
through commerce and friendly intercourse, in your new 
prosperity, and aid you by our prosperity. 

We cannot fail, gentlemen, to be admonished by the many 
failures which have been made by the people of Central 
America to establish agreement among themselves which 
would be lasting, that the task you have before you is no 
easy one. The trial has often been made and the agreements 
which have been elaborated, signed, ratified, seem to have 
been written in water. Yet I cannot resist the impression 
that we have at last come to the threshold of a happier day 
for Central America. Time is necessary to political develop- 
ment. I have great confidence in the judgment that in the 
long course of time, through successive steps of failure, 
through the accompanying education of your people, through 
the encouraging examples which now, more than ever before, 
surround you, success will be attained in securing unity and 
progress in other countries of the new hemisphere. Through 
the combination of all these, you are at a point in your his- 
tory where it is possible for you to take a forward step that 
will remain. 



216 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

It would ill become me to attempt to propose or suggest the 
steps which you should take; but I will venture to observe 
that the all-important thing for you to accomplish is that 
while you enter into agreements which will, I am sure, be 
framed in consonance with the most peaceful aspirations and 
the most rigid sense of justice, you shall devise also some 
practical methods under which it will be possible to secure 
the performance of those agreements. The mere declaration 
of general principles, the mere agreement upon lines of 
policy and of conduct, are of little value unless there be prac- 
tical and definite methods provided by which the responsi- 
bility for failing to keep the agreement may be fixed upon 
some definite person, and the public sentiment of Central 
America brought to bear to prevent the violation. The 
declaration that a man is entitled to his liberty would be of 
little value with us in this country, were it not for the writ of 
habeas corpus that makes it the duty of a specific judge, when 
applied to, to inquire into the cause of a man's detention, and 
set him at liberty if he is unjustly detained. The provision 
which declares that a man should not be deprived of his 
property without due process of law would be of little value 
were it not for the practical provision which imposes on 
specific officers the duty of nullifying every attempt to take 
away a man's property without due process of law. 

To find practical definite methods by which you shall make 
it somebody's duty to see that the great principles you 
declare are not violated, by which if an attempt be made to 
violate them the responsibility may be fixed upon the guilty 
individual — those, in my judgment, are the problems to 
which you should specifically and most earnestly address 
yourselves. 

I have confidence in your success because I have confidence 
in your sincerity of purpose, and because I believe that your 
people have developed to the point where they are ready to 



CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE 217 

receive and to utilize such results as you may work out. 
Why should you not live in peace and harmony ? You are 
one people in fact; your citizenship is interchangeable — 
your race, your religion, your customs, your laws, your line- 
age, your consanguinity and relations, your social connec- 
tions, your sympathies, your aspirations, and your hopes 
for the future are the same. 

It can be nothing but the ambition of individuals who care 
more for their selfish purposes than for the good of their 
country, that can prevent the people of the Central American 
states from living together in peace and unity. 

It is my most earnest hope, it is the hope of the American 
Government and people, that from this conference may come 
the specific and practical measures which will enable the 
people of Central America to march on with equal step 
abreast of the most progressive nations of modern civiliza- 
tion; to fulfill their great destinies in that brotherhood 
which nature has intended them to preserve; to exile forever 
from that land of beauty and of wealth incalculable the 
fraternal strife which has hitherto held you back in the 
development of your civilization. 

ADDRESS CLOSING THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE 
CONFERENCE, DECEMBER 20, 1907 

I BEG you, gentlemen, to accept my hearty and sincere con- 
gratulations. The people of Central America, withdrawn to 
a great distance from the scene of your labors, may not know, 
but I wish that my voice might reach each one of them to tell 
them that during the month that has passed their loyal rep- 
resentatives have been doing for them in sincerity and in the 
discharge of patriotic duty a service which stands upon the 
highest level of the achievements of the most advanced 
modern civilization. You have each one of you been faithful 
to the protection of the interests of your several countries; 



218 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

you have each one of you exliibited patience, kindly consid- 
eration, regard for the rights and feehngs of others, and a 
willingness to meet with open mind the opinions and wishes of 
your fellow-countrymen; you have pursued the true method 
by which law, order, peace, and justice are substituted for the 
unrestrained dominion of the strong over the weak, and you 
have reached conclusions which I believe are wise and are 
well adapted to advance the progress of each and all of the 
Central American republics toward that much-to-be-desired 
consummation in the future of one great, strong, and happy 
Central American republic. 

May the poor husbandman who cultivates the fields of 
your five republics, may the miner who is wearing out his 
weary life in the hard labors of your mines, may the mothers 
who are caring for the infant children who are to make the 
peoples of Central America in the future, may the millions 
whose prosperity and happiness you have sought to advance 
here, may the unborn generations of the future in your 
beloved countries, have reason to look back to this day with 
blessings upon the self-devotion and the self-restraint with 
which you have endeavored to serve their interests and to 
secure their prosperity and peace. 

With this hope the entire body of my countrymen will join, 
and with the expression of this hope I declare the Peace Con- 
ference of the Republics of Central America, convened in the 
city of Washington in this year nineteen hundred and seven, 
to be now adjourned. 



THE PAN AMERICAN CAUSE 

RESPONSE TO THE TOAST OF THE AMBASSADOR OF BRAZH. AT 
A DINNER IN HONOR OF REAR-ADMIRAL HUET DE BACELLAR 
AND THE CAPTAINS OF THE BRAZILIAN SHIPS ON A VISIT TO 
THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 18, 1907 

The Brazilian Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Nabuco 

THIS is the second time that I have the honor and the 
good fortune of meeting in this room the representatives 
of the American nations in Washington, including the Secre- 
tary of State of the United States. These are the great Pan 
American festivals of the Brazilian Embassy. But what a 
great stride our common cause has made since we met here 
last year! All of that progress is principally due to Mr. 
Root's devotion to the cause that he made his own and which 
I have no doubt he will make also a national one. 

I drink to the progress of the Pan American cause in the 
person of its great leader, the Secretary of State. 

Mr. Root 

I THANK you, Mr. Ambassador, for the too flattering 
expression with which you have characterized the efforts 
that, by the accident of position, I have been enabled to 
make in the interpretation of that spirit which in the full- 
ness of time has ripened, developed and become ready for 
universal expression and influence. 

It is a great pleasure for me to look again into the tropical 
forests of Brazil; to come under the magic influence of your 
part of the solar spectrum; and to be introduced again to the 
delightful influences of your language through the words of 
the representative of King Carlos of Portugal. 

219 



220 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

I think any one who is trying to do something is at times 
— perhaps most of the time — incHned to become despon- 
dent, because any single man can do so httle. But if the Httle 
that one man can do happens to be in the Hne of national or 
world tendencies, he may count himself happy in helping 
forward the great work. 

How many thousands of men, bom out of time, give their 
lives to causes which are not ripe for action ! I think that we, 
my friends, are doing our little; happy in contributing to a 
cause that has fully ripened. I confess that in passing from 
the courts to diplomacy; from the argument of causes, the 
conclusion of which would be enforced by the power of 
the marshal or the sheriff, having behind liim the irresistible 
power of the nation — passing from such arguments to the 
discussion that proceeds between the foreign offices of inde- 
pendent powers, I found myself groping about to find some 
sanction for the rules of right conduct which we endeavor to 
assert and maintain. 

It has long been a widely accepted theory that the only 
sanction for the right conduct of nations, for those rules of 
conduct which nations seek to enforce upon each other, is 
the exercise of force; that behind their diplomatic argument 
rests, as the ultimate argument, the possibility of war. But 
I think there has been developing in the later years of prog- 
ress in civilization that other sanction, of the constraining 
effect of the public opinion of manldnd, which rests upon the 
desire for the approval of one's fellowmen. The progress of 
which you have spoken, IVIr. Ambassador, in American inter- 
national relations, is a progress along the pathway that leads 
from the rule of force as the ultimate sanction of argument to 
the rule of public opinion, which enforces its decrees by an 
appeal to the desire for approbation among men. 

That progress is towards the independence, the freedom, 
)f. the dignity, the happiness of every small and weak nation. 



THE PAN AMERICAN CAUSE 221 

It tends to realize the theory of international law, the real 
national equality. The process is one of attrition. Isolation 
among nations leaves no appeal for the enforcement of rules 
of right conduct, but the appeal to force. Communication, 
intercourse, friendship, the desire for good opinion, the exer- 
cise of all the qualities that adorn, that elevate, that refine 
human nature, bring to the defense of the smaller nation the I 
appeal to the other sanction, the sanction of public opinion. 

What we are doing now, because the time has come for it 
to be done, is to help in our day and generation in the creation 
of a public opinion in America which shall approve all that is 
good in national character and national conduct and punish 
all that is wrong with that most terrible penalty, the dis- 
approval of all America. As that process approaches its per- 
fection, the work of our friends, of the armies and navies of 
America, will have been accomplished. 

It is not a work of selfishness; it is a work for universal 
civilization. It is a work by which we will repay to France 
and Portugal and to Sweden — to all our mother lands 
across the Atlantic — all the gifts of civilization, of litera- 
ture, of art, of the results of their long struggles upward from 
barbarism to light, with which they have endowed us. For 
in the vast fields of incalculable wealth that the American 
continents offer to the enterprise and the cultivation of the 
world, the older nations of Europe will find their wealth, and 
opportunity for the exercise of their powers in peace and with 
equality. 

It was a great pleasure to me — it was a cause of pride to 
me — to hear so distinguished an English scholar as the 
Ambassador from France speak the beautiful language of 
France so perfectly tonight. It is a great pleasure for me to 
find that throughout the United States the young men are 
in constantly increasing numbers learning to speak not only 
French, but Spanish and Portuguese. It was a great pleasure 




222 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

to find throughout South America last summer so many, not 
merely of the most distinguished and highly cultivated men, 
speaking English, but so large a number of the people in the 
cities that I visited. 

It all makes for that attrition, that practical intercourse, 
which is the process of civilization; and in destroying the 
isolation, the separation of American states from each other, 
in building up an American public opinion, we are preparing 
ourselves the more perfectly to unite with our friends of 
Europe in a world public opinion, which shall establish the 
reign of justice and liberty and humanity throughout the 
world by slow, practical, untiring processes of intercourse 
and friendship in place of the rules of brutal force. 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 

There has been, especially in recent years, a very strong feeling that the points 
which the American republics have in common greatly exceed their differences 
and that stated conferences of the American republics would not only tend to 
accentuate the points in common but would enable them to take common action in 
matters of common interest, remove unwarranted suspicions which often exist 
between and among peoples which do not come into contact, and tend to lessen the 
very differences. 

In 1881, the Honorable James G. Blaine, then secretary of state of the United 
States, stated that in the opinion of the President of the United States " the time 
is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good-will and active cooperation of all the 
states of the western hemisphere, both north and south, in the interest of humanity 
and for the common weal of nations." ^ Mr. Blaine proposed on behalf of the 
President, that a congress meet in the city of Washington. The congress or con- 
ference actually took place in that city in 1889-1890, during the secretaryship of 
state of Mr. Blaine. This is commonly called the International American Con- 
ference. All of the American countries, with the exception of Santo Domingo, were 
represented, and they agreed upon " the establishment of an American Interna- 
tional Bureau for the collection, tabulation, and publication, in the English, Spanish, 
and Portuguese languages, of Information as to the productions and commerce, and 
as to the customs laws and regulations of their respective countries; such bureau to 
be maintained in one of the countries for the common benefit and at the common 
expense, and to furnish to all the other countries such commercial statistics and other 
useful information as may be contributed to it by any of the American republics." ^ 

This was the origin of the International Bm-eau of the American Republics, out 
of which has grown the Pan American Union, " a voluntary organization of the 
twenty-one American republics, including the United States, maintained by their 
annual contributions, controlled by a governing board composed of the diplomatic 
representatives in Washington of the other twenty governments and the secretary 
of state of the United States, who is chairman ex officio, and devoted to the develop- 
ment and conservation of peace, friendship, and commerce between them all." ' 

Modestly housed at first, the success of the Union required larger quarters for the 
performance of its work. Advantage was taken of this need to erect the building 
which was to be the visible and worthy symbol of Pan Americanism. Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie, a delegate on behalf of the United States to the first Pan American Con- 
ference in Washington, contributed $950,000 towards the construction of this 
building, the United States contributed the land, and the other American republics 
their respective quotas. 

^ Foreign Relations of the United States, 1881, p. 14. 

* The Pan American Union, pp. 81, 82. ^ Ibid., p. 7. 

223 



224 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

The circumstances under which the funds for the erection of this building were 
obtained appear in the records of the Governing Board of the Pan American 
Union, from which the following resolutions and correspondence have been obtained : 

Resolution of the Third International Conference at Rio de Janeiro, adopted 
August 13, I'JOe 

The undersigned. Delegates of the Republics represented in the Third Inter- . 
national American Conference, duly authorized by their Governments, have 
approved the following Resolution: 

The Third International American Conference Resolves: 

1. To express its gratification that the project to establish a permanent centre 
of information and of interchange of ideas among the Republics of this Continent, 
as well as the erection of a building suitable for the Library in memory of Columbus 
has been realized. 

2. To express the hope that, before the meeting of the next International 
American Conference the International Bureau of American Republics will be 
housed in such a way as to permit it to properly fulfil the important functions 
assigned to it by this Conference. 

Made and signed in the City of Rio de Janeiro, on the thirteenth day of the 
month of August, nineteen hundred and six, in English, Portuguese and Spanish, 
and deposited in the Department of Foreign Relations of the Government of the 
United States of Brazil, in order that certified copies thereof be made, and forwarded 
through diplomatic channels to each one of the Signatory States. 

For Ecuador. — Emilio Arevalo, Olmedo Alfaro. 

For Paraguay. — Manoel Gondra, Arsenio Lopez Decoud, Gualberto Cardds y 
Huerta. 

For Bolivia. — Alberto Gutierrez, Carlos V. Romero. 

For Colombia. — Rafael Uribe Uribe, Guillermo Valencia. 

For Honduras. — Fausto Ddvila. 

For Panama. — Jose Domingo de Obaldia. 

For Cuba. — Gonzalo de Quesada, Rafael Montoro, Antonio Gonz41ez Lanuza. 

For the Dominican Republic. — Emilio C. Joubert. 

For Peru. — Eugenio Larabure y Unanue, Antonio Mir6 Quesada, Mariano 
Cornejo. 

For El Salvador. — Francisco A. Reyes. 

For Costa Rica. — Ascension Esquivel. 

For the United States of Mexico. — Francisco Le6n de La Barra, Ricardo 
Molina-Hiibbe, Ricardo Garcia Granados. 

For Guatemala. — Antonio Batrcs Jauregui. 

For Uruguay. — Luis Melian Lafinur, Antonio Maria Rodriguez, Gonzalo 
Ramirez. 

For the Argentine Republic. — J. V. Gonzdlez, Jos6 A. Terry, Eduardo L. 
Bidau. 

For Nicaragua. — Luis F. Corea. 

For the United States of Brazil. — Joaquim Aurelio Nabuco de Aran jo, Joaquim 
Francisco de A^is Brosil, Gastilo de Cuuba, Alfredo de Moraes Gomes Ferreira, 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 225 

Joao Pandi4 Calogeras, Amaro Cavalcanti, Joaquim Xavier da Silveira, Jos^ P. da 
Gratja Aranha, Antonio da Fontoura Xavier. 

For the United States of America. — William I. Buchanan, L. S. Rowe, A. J. 
Montague, Tulio Larrinaga, Paul S. Reinsch, Van Leer Polk. 

For Chile. — Anselmo Hevia Riquelme, Joaquin Walker Martinez, Luis Antonio 
Vergara, Adolfo Guerrero. 

Resolution of the Governing Board and letter of the Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root, 
to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, approved at the meeting of December 19, 1906 

Whereas, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Interaational Bureau of 
the American Republics has laid before this, the said Board, the following letter sent 
by him as chairman to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and has asked for the approval thereof 
by the Board — that is to say: 

Department of State, 
Washington, December 4, 1906. 
My Dear Mr. Carnegie: Your active and effective cooperation in promot- 
ing better communication between the countries of America as a member of 
the commission authorized by the Second Pan American Conference held in 
Mexico, your patriotic citizenship in the greatest of American Republics, your 
I earnest and weighty advocacy of peace and good will among the nations of the 
earth, and your action in providing a suitable building for the International 
j Tribunal at The Hague embolden me to ask your aid in promoting the benefi- 
: cent work of the Union of American Republics, which was established by the 
i Conference of Washington in 1889, continued by the Conference of Mexico in 
■ 1902, and has now been made permanent by the Conference of Rio de Janeiro 
in 1906. There is a general feeling that the Rio Conference, the South Ameri- 
can journey of the Secretary of State, and the expressions of coiui;esy and 
kindly feeling which accompanied them have given a powerful impulse to the 
growth of a better acquaintance between the people of all the American coun- 
tries, a better mutual understanding between them, the establishment of a 
common public opinion, and the reasonable and kindly treatment of inter- 
national questions in the place of isolation, suspicion, irritation, strife, and war. 
There is also a general opinion that while the action of the Bureau of Ameri- 
can Republics, designed to carry on this work from conference to conference, 
has been excellent so far as it has gone, the scope of the Bureau's work ought to 
be enlarged and its activity and efficiency greatly increased. 

To accomplish this, a building adequate to the magnitude and dignity of the 
great work to be done is indispensable. With this view the nations constituting 
the Union have expressed their willingness to contribute, and some of them 
have contributed, and the Congress of the United States has, at its last session, 
appropriated, to the extent of $200,000, funds available for the purchase of a 
suitable site in the city of Washington. With this view also the Conference at 
Rio de Janeiro, on the 13th of August, 1906, adopted resolutions looking to the 
establishment of a * permanent center of information and of interchange of 
ideas among the Republics of this Continent as well as a building suitable for 
the library in memory of Columbus,' and expressed the hope that ' before the 



226 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

meeting of the next International American Conference the International 
Bureau of American Republics shall be housed in such a way as to permit it to 
properly fulfill the important functions assigned to it by this conference.' 

Those functions arc, in brief, to give effect to the work of the conference; 
to carry out its resolutions; to prepare the work of future conferences; to dis- 
seminate through each American country a knowlctlge of the affairs, the senti- 
ments and the progress of every other American country; to promote better 
communication and more constant intercourse; to increase the interaction 
among all the Republics of each upon the others in commerce, in education, in 
the arts and sciences, and in political and social life, and to maintain in the city 
of Washington a headquarters, a meeting place, a center of influence for the 
same peaceful and enlightened thought and conscience of all America. 

I feel sure of your hearty sympathy in the furtherance of this undertaking, 
so full of possibilities for the peace and the prosperity of America and of man- 
kind, and I appeal to you in the same spirit that has actuated your great bene- 
factions to humanity in the past to provide for the erection, upon the site thus 
to be supplied by governmental action, of a suitable building for the work of the 
Union, the direction and control of which has been imposed by our respective 
Governments upon the Governing Board, of which I have the honor to be 
Chairman 

With great respect and esteem, I am, my dear Mr. Carnegie, 
^'ery sincerely yours, 

Elihu Root, 
Secretary of State and ex officio Chairman of the Governing Board of the Bureau of 
American Republics. 

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the action of the Secretary of State, as Chair- 
man of this Board, in sending the aforesaid letter be, and it hereby is, approved. 

Mr. Carnegie to Mr. Root. 

New York, January 1, 1907. 
Hon. Elihu Root, 

Secretary of State and ex officio Chairman of the Governing Board of the Bureau of 

South American Republics, Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: I am greatly pleased that you and your colleagues of the South 
American Republics have done me the honor to suggest that I might furnish a 
suitable home in Washington for the Bureau of American Republics. 

The approval of your application by the Governing Board of the International 
Bureau and President Roosevelt's hearty expressions of satisfaction are most 
gratifying. 

You very kindly mention my membership of the first Pan American Conference 
and advocacy of the Pan American Railway, the gaps of which are being slowly 
filled. The importance of this enterprise impresses itself more and more upon me, 
and I hope to see it accomplished. 

I am happy, therefore, in stating that it will be one of the pleasures of my life to 
furnish to the Union of all the Republics of this hemisphere the necessary funds 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 227 

($750,000) from time to time as may be needed for the construction of an inter- 
national home in Washington. 

The cooperation of our own Republic is seen in the appropriation of funds by 
Congress for the purchase of the site, and in the agreement between the Republics 
for the maintenance of the Bureau we have additional evidence of cooperation, so 
that the forthcoming American Temple of Peace wUl be the joint work of all of the 
Republics. Every generation should see them drawing closer together. 

It is a cheering thought that all these are for the first time to be represented at 
the forthcoming Hague Conference. Henceforth they are members of that body, 
whose aim is the settlement of international disputes by that " High Court of 
Nations " or other similar tribunal. 

I beg to express to each and all of them my heartfelt thanks for bemg permitted 
to make such a New Year's gift as this. I have never felt more keenly than I do 
this New Year's morning how much more blessed it is to give than to receive, and 
I consider myself highly honored by being considered worthy to provide the forth- 
coming union home, where the accredited representatives of all the Republics 
are to meet and, I trust, to bind together their respective nations in the bonds of 
unbroken peace. 

Very truly, yours, 

Andrew Carnegie. 



Resolutions approved by the Governing Board of the International Bureau of 
the American Republics, January 30, 1907. 

Resolved, That the letter of Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the Chairman of the Board, 
dated January 1, 1907, be received and filed and spread upon the minutes of the 
Board. 

Resolved, That the Governing Board of the Bureau of American Republics 
express to Mr. Andrew Carnegie its acceptance and grateful appreciation of his 
generous and public-spirited engagement to supply the funds for the proposed new 
building for the Union of American Republics. The Board shares with ]\Ir. Carnegie 
the hope that the institution whose work will thus be promoted may further the 
cause of peace and justice among nations and the sincere and helpful friendship of 
aU the American Republics for each other. 

Resolved, That the Chairman of the Board communicate a copy of the foregoing 
resolutions to Mr. Carnegie. 

The Governing Board of the International Bureau of the American Republics 
further resolves: 

1. That the letter of the Honorable the Secretary of State, Mr. Elihu Root, to 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie; the answer of this distinguished philanthropist, and the 
resolution of the Governing Board accepting this splendid gift be kept on file with 
the important documents of the Bureau; and 

2. That the text of these letters and the resolutions thereon be artistically 
engrossed under the title of " Carnegie's Gift to the International Bureau of the 
American Republics," and, properly framed, to form a part of the exhibit of 
the Bureau at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, 



228 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

On May 11, 1908, Mr. Root, then secretary of state, whose forethought and 
personal efforts had nia<le its construction j)ossihIc, deliveretl the address at the 
laying of the corner stone, and later, on April 'id, 1910, when he was no longer secre- 
tary of state but senator of the rnite<i States and friend of the Americas, he 
delivered the principal address at the dedication of the building. These two 
addresses follow: 

ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE 

BUILDING FOR THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 

WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 11. 1908 

WE are here to lay the comer stone of the building 
which is to be the home of the International Union of 
American Republics.^ 

The wise liberality of the Congress of the United States 
has provided the means for the purchase of this tract of land 
— five acres in extent — near the White House and the great 
executive departments, bounded on every side by pubUc 
streets and facing to the east and south upon public parks 
which it will always be the care of the National Government 
to render continually more beautiful, in execution of its 
design to make the national capital an object of national 
pride and a source of that pleasure which comes to rich and 
poor alike from the education of taste. 

The public spirit and enthusiasm for the good of humanity, 
which have inspired an American citizen, IVIr. Andrew 
Carnegie, in his administration of a great fortune, have led 
him to devote the adequate and ample sum of three-quarters 
of a million dollars to the construction of the building.^ 

Into the appropriate adornment and fitting of the edifice 
will go the contributions of every American republic, already 
pledged and, in a great measure, already paid into the fund 
of the Union. 

The International Union for which the building is erected 
is a voluntary association, the members of which are all the 

* The name was changed to the Pan American Union in 1910. 
» Later increased to $950,000. 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 229 

American nations from Cape Horn to the Great Lakes. It 
had its origin in the first Pan American conference held at 
Washington in 1889, and it has been developed and improved 
in efiiciency under the resolutions of the succeeding confer- 
ences in Mexico and Brazil. Its primary object is to break 
down the barriers of mutual ignorance between the nations 
of America by collecting and making accessible, furnishing 
and spreading, information about every country among the 
people of every other country in the Union, to facilitate and 
stimulate intercourse, trade, acquaintance, good under- 
standing, fellowship, and sympathy. For this purpose it has 
established in Washington a bureau or office under the direc- 
tion of a governing board composed of the official represen- 
tatives in Washington of all the republics, and having a 
director and secretary, with a force of assistants and trans- 
lators and clerks. 

The bureau has established a rapidly increasing library of 
history, travel, description, statistics, and literature of the 
American nations. It publishes a Monthly Bulletin of current 
pubhc events and existing conditions in all the united coun- 
tries, which is circulated in every country. It carries on an 
enormous correspondence with every part of both continents, 
answering the questions of seekers for information about the 
laws, customs, conditions, opportunities, and personnel of 
the different countries; and it has become a medium of intro- 
duction and guidance for international intercourse. 

The governing board is also a permanent committee 
charged with the duty of seeing that the resolutions of each 
Pan American conference are carried out and that suitable 
preparation is made for the next succeeding conference. 

The increasing work of the bureau has greatly outgrown 
the facilities of its cramped quarters on Pennsylvania 
Avenue, and now at the close of its second decade and under 
the influence of the great movement of awakened sympathy 



230 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

between the American republics, the Union stands upon the 
threshold of more ample opportunity for the prosecution of 
its beneficent activity-. 

Many noble and beautiful public buildings record the 
achievements and illustrate the impulses of modern civiliza- 
tion. Temples of religion, of patriotism, of learning, of art, 
of justice, abound; but this structure will stand alone, the 
first of its kind — a temple dedicated to international friend- 
ship. It will be devoted to the diffusion of that international 
knowledge which dispels national prejudice and liberalizes 
national judgment. Here will be fostered the growth of that 
sympathy bom of similarity in good impulses and noble 
purposes, which draws men of different races and countries 
together into a community of nations, and counteracts the 
tendency of selfish instincts to array nations against each 
other as enemies. From this source shall spring mutual 
helpfulness between all the American republics, so that the 
best knowledge and experience and courage and hope of 
every republic shall lend moral power to sustain and 
strengthen every other in its struggle to work out its prob- 
lems and to advance the standard of liberty and peace with 
justice within itself, and so that no people in all these conti- 
nents, however oppressed and discouraged, however impov- 
erished and torn by disorder, shall fail to feel that they 
are not alone in the world, or shall fail to see that for them 
a better day may dawn, as for others the sun has already 
arisen. 

It is too much to expect that there will not be controver- 
sies between American nations to whose desire for harmony 
we now bear witness; but to every controversy will apply 
the truth that there are no international controversies so 
serious that they cannot be settled peaceably if both parties 
really desire peaceable settlement, while there are few causes 
of dispute so trifling that they cannot be made the occasion of 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 231 

war if either party really desires war. The matters in dis- 
pute between nations are nothing; the spirit which deals 
with them is everything. 

The graceful courtesy of the twenty republics who have 
agreed upon the capital of the United States for the home of 
this International Union, the deep appreciation of that 
courtesy shown by the American Government and this repre- 
sentative American citizen, and the work to be done withm 
the walls that are to rise on this site, cannot fail to be power- 
ful influences towards the creation of a spirit that will solve 
all disputed questions of the future and preserve the peace 
of the Western World. 

May the structure now begun stand for many generations 
to come as the visible evidence of mutual respect, esteem, 
appreciation, and kindly feeling between the peoples of all the 
republics; may pleasant memories of hospitality and friend- 
ship gather about it, and may all the Americas come to feel 
that for them this place is home, for it is theirs, the product 
of a common effort and the instrument of a common purpose. 

ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE BUILDING OF THE 

PAN AMERICAN UNION, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

APRIL 26, 1910 

I AM sure that this beautiful building must produce a lively 
sense of grateful appreciation in all who care for the 
growth of friendship among Americans; to Mr. Carnegie, 
not merely for his generous gift but for the large sympathy 
and far vision that prompted it; and to the associate 
architects, Mr. Albert Kelsey and Mr. Paul Cret, who, 
not content with makmg this structure express their sense 
of artistic form and proportion, have entered with the devo- 
tion and self-absorption of true art into the spirit of the 
design for which their bricks and marble are to stand. They 
have brought into happy companionship architectural sug- 



232 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

gestions of the North and of the South; and have wrought 
into construction and ornament in a hundred ways the art, 
the symbolism, the traditions, and the history of all the 
American republics; and they have made the building a true 
expression of Pan Americanism, of open mind and open 
heart for all that is true and noble and worthy of respect 
from whatever race or religion or language or custom in the 
western continents. 

Nor should we forget the fine enthusiasm and under- 
standing with which Mr. Borglum and Mr. Conti and iVIrs. 
Famham and Mrs. Whitney have brought sculpture to aid 
the architects' expression; nor the honest and faithful work of 
Mr. Norcross, the builder; nor the kind help of Mr. William 
Smith, of the Botanical Garden, who has filled the patio with 
tropical plants rare and strange to northern eyes, but familiar 
friends to the Latin American; nor the energy and unweary- 
ing labors of Mr. Barrett, the director of the bureau. 

The active interest of President Taft and Secretary Knox 
is evidence that the policy of Pan American friendship, re- 
inaugurated by the sympathetic genius of Secretary Blaine, 
is continuous and permanent in the United States; and the 
harmony in which the members of the governing board have 
worked to this end is a good omen for the future. 

This building is to be, in its most manifest utilitarian ser- 
vice, a convenient instrument for association and growth of 
mutual knowledge among the people of the different repub- 
lics. The library maintained here, the books and journals 
accessible here, the useful and interesting publications of 
the bureau, the enormous correspondence carried on with 
seekers for knowledge about American countries, the oppor- 
tunities now afforded for further growth in all these activities, 
justify the pains and the expense. 

The building is more important, however, as the symbol, 
the ever-present reminder, the perpetual assertion, of unity, 



THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 233 

of common interest and purpose and hope among all the 
republics. This building is a confession of faith, a covenant 
of fraternal duty, a declaration of allegiance to an ideal. 
The members of The Hague conference of 1907 described 
the conference in the preamble of its great arbitration con- 
vention as: 

Animated by the sincere desire to work for the maintenance of 
general jjeace. 

Resolved to promote by all the efforts in their power the friendly 
settlement of international disputes. 

Recognizing the sohdarity uniting the members of the society of 
ci\Tlized nations. 

Desirous of extending the empire of law and of strengthening the 
appreciation of international justice. 

That is the meaning of this building for the republics of 
America. That sentiment vrhich all the best in modem 
ci\-ilization is trying to Hve up to, we have written here in 
marble for the people of the American continents. 

The process of civilization is by association. In isolation, 
men, communities, nations, tend back towards savagery. 
Repellent differences and dishkes separate them from man- 
kind. In association, similarities and attractions are felt and 
differences are forgotten. There is so much more good than 
ev3 ui men that liking comes by knowing. We have here the 
product of mutual knowledge, cooperation, harmony, friend- 
ship. Here is an e\^dence of what these can accomphsh. 
Here is an earnest of what may be done in the future. From 
these windows the governing board of the International 
Union will look down upon the noble river that flows by the 
home of Washington. They will sit beneath the shadow of 
the simple and majestic monument which illustrates our 
conception of his character, the character that, beyond all 
others in human history, rises above jealousy and envx and 
ignoble strife. All the nations acknowledge his preeminent 
influence. He belongs to them all. No man lives in free- 



234 LiVTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

dom anywhere on earth who is not his debtor and his fol- 
lower. "We dedicate this place to the service of the political 
faith in which he lived and 'WTOught. Long may this struc- 
ture stand, while within its walls and under the influence 
of the benign purpose from which it sprang, the habit 
and the power of self-control, of mutual consideration and 
kindly judgment, more and more exclude the narrowness 
and selfishness and prejudice of ignorance and the hasty 
impulses of super-sensitive amour propre. May men hereafter 
come to see that here is set a milestone in the path of Ameri- 
can civilization towards the reign of that universal public 
opinion which shall condemn all who through contentious 
spirit or greed or selfish ambition or lust for power disturb 
the public peace, as enemies of the general good of the 
American republics. 

One voice that should have spoken here today is silent, 
but many of us cannot forget or cease to mourn and to honor 
our dear and noble friend, Joaquim Nabuco. Ambassador 
from Brazil, dean of the American Diplomatic Corps, 
respected, admired, trusted, loved, and followed by all of 
us, he was a commanding figure in the international move- 
ment of which the erection of this building is a part. 
The breadth of his political philosophy, the nobility of his 
idealism, the prophetic vision of his poetic imagination, were 
joined to wisdom, to the practical sagacity of statesmanship, 
to a s;sTnpathetic knowledge of men, and to a heart as sensi- 
tive and tender as a woman's. He followed the design and 
construction of this building with the deepest interest. His 
beneficent influence impressed itself upon all of our actions. 
No benison can be pronounced upon this great institution so 
rich in promise for its future as the wish that his ennobling 
memory may endure and his civilizing spirit may control, 
in the councils of the International Union of American 
Republics. 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— ARGENTINA 

ADDRESS AT THE BANQUET OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO THE OFFICERS OF THE 
FOREIGN AND UNITED STATES SQUADRONS ^\TIICH ESCORTED 
THE SPANISH CARA\^LS TO NEW YORK, APRIL 28, 1893 

IT is my pleasant privilege to respond to a toast to an off- 
spring of old Spain, a direct lineal descendant, an inheritor 
of her blood, her faith and her language. 

It is only a young republic, only an American republic. 
No historic centuries invest her with romance or with inter- 
est; but she is great in glorious promise of the future, and 
great in manifest power to fulfill the promise. 

Far away to the southward, beyond the great empire of 
the Amazon, beyond the equatorial heats, there stretches a 
vast land, from the latitude of Cuba on the north to the lati- 
tude of Hudson Bay on the south, and from the Andes to 
the Eastern Sea. In this land mighty rivers flow through 
vast forests, and immeasurable plains stretch from ocean to 
mountains, with a soil of inexhaustible fertility, under every 
variety of healthful and invigorating climate. 

All this we know; but we must not forget, and we cannot 
forget tonight, that this great land, capable of supporting in 
plenty all the teeming millions of Eiu-ope, is possessed by the 
people of a free constitutional republic, of all the sisterhood 
of nations, in form, in feature and in character, the most like 
to ourselves. 

For forty years the Argentine Republic has lived and gov- 
erned itself under a constitution in all material respects the 
exact counterpart of the Constitution of the United States. 
Its constitution was avowedly modelled after ours. For 

235 



23G LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

forty years, in fourteen separate states like our own, the 
people of Argentina have preserved the sacred right of local 
self-government. For forty years they have maintained at 
the same time the sovereignty of their nation; and by the 
constancy of their past they have given a high and ever- 
increasing credit to their promise that for the future, under 
Southern Cross as under Northern Star, government by the 
people, of the people, and for the people, shall endure. 

Under this constitutional system they have framed for 
themselves wise and liberal laws. They have constructed 
extensive works of internal improvement; and water-ways, 
and railroads, and telegraph lines, all invite to the develop- 
ment of their vast natural wealth. They have established 
universal religious toleration. They have protected the 
rights of private property and of personal liberty. They 
have created and maintained a great system of public educa- 
tion. In more than three thousand public common schools 
over a quarter of a million children are today learning how to 
be good citizens. Grading up from these common schools 
through lyceums in every state and two great universities, 
the pathway of higher education is open to all the people 
of the republic. 

Under such a constitution and such laws, Argentina has 
made greater material progress and greater advance in the art 
of self-government, during our generation, than any people 
upon the western hemisphere, unless it be, perhaps, our own. 

We remember, too, that the people of Argentina, like our 
own fathers, won their liberty by struggle and by sacrifice. 
They made their fight for independence at a time when 
Europe was exhausted by the Napoleonic wars. They 
attracted but little attention and less aid from the Old 
World. No Byron enshrined their heroism in deathless verse; 
no Rousseau with the philosophy of humanity awoke for 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC — ARGENTINA 237 

them generous and effective enthusiasm in the breasts of a 
Lafayette or a Rochambeau, a Von Steuben or a Kosciusko. 

Alone and unaided they fought their fight. Dependent 
upon themselves, on the ninth of July, seventy-seven years 
ago, they made their own declaration of independence, com- 
memorated in the name of that thing of beauty and of power 
which today floats upon the bosom of the Hudson, a peer 
among the embattled navies of the world. They made good 
that declaration against all odds, through hardship, through 
suffering, through seas of blood, with desperate valor and 
lofty heroism, worthy the plaudits of the world. 

And then they conquered themselves; learned the hard 
lesson of subordinating personal ambition to law, to order, to 
the public weal. 

And today more people than followed Washington with 
their hopes and prayers enjoy the blessings of hberty and 
peace, and the security of established and equal laws, won for 
them by the patriots who gave their lives for their country on 
the plains of Argentina. 

These people have not only done all this for themselves, 
but they also have opened their arms to all the people of 
the earth, and have welcomed to their shores the poor, the 
humble, the downcast of all lands. So that scores of thou- 
sands of French, of Italians, of Germans, of English, of Span- 
iards, coming not as their fathers came, in mailed forms to 
conquer savage foes — but under peaceful flags — a million 
and a half of men from all civilized lands of Europe, have 
come to share the peace, the plenty and the freedom of the 
young republic; and to contribute to her prosperity and 
wealth. Every guest at our board tonight may feel his pulses 
beat in unison with the sentiment of health and prosperity 
to the new land where his own kindred have found new 
homes and hopes. 



238 L.\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

If there be truth in the philosophy of history — if the 
crossing of stocks, the blending of races, makes the strong 
new race, with capacity and power to press forward and 
upward the standard of civilization, the future is to find the 
people of Argentina in the forefront of human progress. 

And so, from the Hudson to the La Plata, from the plains 
to the Pampas, from the Rockies to the Andes, from the old 
American republic to the young American republic, from 
sister to sister, w^th the same convictions and hopes and 
aspirations, we send sincere and hearty greeting, congratu- 
lation and God-speed. 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— BRAZIL 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME TO DR. LAURO MULLER, SECRETARY OF 
STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF BRAZIL, AT A BANQUET OF 
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
JUNE 18, 1913 

The republic of Brazil designated its minister for foreign affairs, Dr. Lauro 
Miiller, to return officially Mr. Root's visit to that republic, and the following 
address was delivered by Mr. Root at the dinner given by the Chamber of Com- 
merce of the State of New York to His Excellency, Lauro MUller, Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Brazil. 

WHEN in the various pathways that one treads in a 
long life one has made friends, has garnered the 
wealth of friendship, that is more the happiness of age than 
wealth of money or possession, I know of nothing more 
delightful than to help bring together distant and separated 
friends and complete that circuit of magnetic intercourse 
which, after all, above all sordid motives, above all selfish 
interests, above all things material, makes up the true value 
of life. 

I cannot express the satisfaction that I feel in having you, 
my friends, the Chamber of Commerce, unite in taking the 
hand, and coming into personal contact with, my old friend 
and host of the southern republic. I feel that you are all 
paying my debt of gratitude, paying it as friends should pay 
it for friends. 

Dr. Miiller, you have come to see a people widely known 
throughout the world for their great material achievements, 
a people whose influence has been very great in the develop- 
ment of civilization and in the advancement of those stand- 
ards of living and of action which we believe make our times 
better than the times that have gone before; and you see 
here about you at these tables, and in the portraits upon 

230 



240 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

these walls, the men who, for nearly a century and a half 
have played a great, aye, the greatest part in the amazing 
material developments and in the spiritual life of this repub- 
lic. Those who are living today under the inspiration and 
the spirit of the great citizens who have gone before are 
gathered to do you honor and do your country honor. What 
has been done in the United States of America, has been 
done, not by the power of money; it has been done, not 
under the influence of selfish motives; it has been done under 
the influence of noble ideals, of great minds, and of great 
hearts directing and guiding and leading the mighty affairs 
of a great people. And here are representatives, not all, but 
many, of the foremost representatives of that American 
spirit which has accomplished everything which you have 
seen in your journey here. 

My friends of the Chamber of Commerce, some years ago 
when it fell to my lot to visit South America, for the purpose 
of carrying to the minds of our southern sisters a true mes- 
sage of the real feeling of our people towards them, for the 
purpose of getting a hearing among the peoples of South 
America, which could not be gained through the newspapers, 
which could not be gained in any other way than by direct 
personal contact and by the influence of one personality 
meeting another, for the purpose of doing away with the 
false and distorted ideas that our great country was possessed 
by ambition and the lust of conquest and the desire for 
dominion over other lands, I met in Brazil the most noble 
and generous hospitality. No nation of men could have 
exhibited in a higher degree all those qualities which make 
men love each other than the people of Brazil exhibited to 
me on my visit there. The noble traditions of their race, all 
the great-heartedness of the grandees of the Iberian Penin- 
sula, all those sentiments which have made them par excel- 
lence the gentlemen of civilization were exhibited in the 



OUH SISTER REPUBLIC— BRAZIL 241 

welcome they gave to you, to our people, through me as 
their representative. 

In that land of surpassing beauty, in that scene upon the 
Bay of Rio, with its shining waters and its blue mountains, 
in that city which has all the romance of fair Ionian cities, 
I found a depth and warmth of friendship, a depth of patriot- 
ism and love for their own country, a response to the message 
of humanity, and a warm acceptance of the tender of friend- 
ship which made the people of Brazil ever to me a group of 
dearly loved and always to be remembered friends. And 
among the first of them all was our guest of this evening. 
His personal hospitality I shall never forget. He knew not 
the words inconvenience or trouble. One would have thought 
he had no other duties to perform but to make the stranger 
who came from the distant republic of the north at home 
and happy, and he did it as the men of his country know 
how to do it. Even then he held a great place in the govern- 
ment of his country; and it is a matter of the utmost satis- 
faction to me that his people have continued their confidence 
in him and have led him along step by step to higher and 
higher office, so that today he stands in the forefront of the 
statesmen who are making Brazil one of the great world 
powers of our modem civilization. 

It is not, my friends, a mere gathering of courtesy tonight. 
We are not merely performing a duty of hospitality to the 
representative of a foreign state, when we exhibit our sin- 
cere friendship and our kindly feelings toward Dr. Mliller 
and his country; we are doing for ourselves something of 
inestimable value, and we are doing something of inesti- 
mable value for the people of our country. 

Of late the electors of America, the unofficial people of 
America, are demanding, asserting and laying hold upon 
more and more direct relation to the powers of government; 
but a democracy when it undertakes to govern directly. 



242 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

needs to remember that there are no rights without a duty, 
there is no chily without a right; and if a democracy is to 
r govern itself well it must realize its responsibilities. We have 
been so isolated, we have been so free from wars and rumors 
of wars, so little inconvenienced by interference on the part of 
other nations in our vast domain, so busy with our internal 
affairs, that the people of the United States know but little, 
think but little, and care but little regarding foreign affairs. 
If the people of the United States are themselves to direct 
their foreign affairs they must come to a realizing sense of 
their responsibilities in foreign affairs; and first among those 
responsibilities is the duty of courtesy, the' duty of kindly 
consideration, the duty to subordinate selfish interests to the 
broader interests of the nations of the world; the duty to treat 
every other nation with that judicial sense of others' rights 
which differentiates all diplomacy from the controversies 
of courts or the clashing of business interests. 

Our people, if their voice is to be heard in foreign affairs, 
must learn that we cannot continue a policy of peace with 
insult; we must learn civility, we must learn that when we 
speak, when an American sovereign speaks of the affairs of 
other nations, he speaks under responsibility, and he must 
observe those rules of courtesy and of friendly relations by 
which alone can the peace of the world be maintained. 

Today we hear much of peace and persuasion for peace. 
Let me tell you that the great peace agencies of the world 
today are the governments of the world. Hitherto, in 
Dr. Miiller's visit, he has been in the main entertained by 
the American Government and the people connected with the 
American Government; but the responsibility for inter- 
national friendship and international peace today rests not 
with governments that are always for peace, but with the 
people. It is the people from whom the danger of war comes 
today; it is the people, so far as they are unwilling to exer- 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— BRAZIL 243 

cise self-restraint and all the qualities which go to make for 
agreeable and kindly and friendly relations with other people. 

So, to my mind your meeting here to extend the right hand 
of fellowship to Dr. Miiller, to express to him the feeling of 
kindliness towards his country, m its representation of the 
people of the United States and as one of the multitude of 
incidents exercismg an influence over the people, is of greater 
value and greater importance than anything that the ofBcial 
Government of the United States can do. 

We have had for now ninety years a special political rela- 
tion to the southern republics. Since the time when Monroe 
announced the doctrine which carries the necessary implica- 
tion that every foot of soil upon the two American continents 
is under a government competent to govern, no longer open 
to colonization as the waste places of the earth are open, — 
from that time to this, special and peculiar political relations 
have existed between the United States and the other coun- 
tries of the western conthient. Thank Heaven the need for 
it, the need for the protection that came from that great asser- 
tion, is growing less and less. There are some parts of the con- 
tinent as to which the necessities of the Monroe Doctrine, as 
it regards our safety, do not grow less; but as to those great 
republics in South America which have passed out of the 
condition of militarism, out of the condition of revolution, 
into the condition of mdustrialism, into the paths of success- 
ful commerce, and are becoming great and powerful nations, 
the Monroe Doctrine has done its work. And the thing 
above all things that I hope and trust and believe the people 
of South America will become permanently convinced of is, 
that there is neither to the Monroe Doctrine nor any other doc- 
trine or purpose of the American Government any corollary 
of dominion or aggression, or of aught but equal friendship. 

There is a national spirit and a national purpose and a 
national ideal quite apart from individual purpose or indi- 



244 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

vidual ideals. I am one of those who believe that for the 
existence of a truly great nation there must be an ideal of 
altruism. I believe that no people can be truly great which 
has no national and collective purpose that is not selfish. 
I believe that our country has a mission in the world; has 
great deeds to accomplish for the world; has a great future 
of beneficence for civilization; and that our sense of this, 
dim and vague doubtless among us in the main, buoys us 
up and makes us better patriots and makes our country the 
great nation that we love and honor. And directly to your 
hands in the accomplishment of the great national purpose, 
\ making all our prosperity, all our power, all our capital and 
our labor instruments for the bettering of mankind, for the 
progress of civilization and for the coming of the effective 
and universal rule of the religion which we profess, right at 
your hands, as the first and plainest duty, is the cementing 
of the bonds of friendship between our republic and our 
sister republics of the continent. 

We have much to learn from Brazil — I hope she may learn 
much from us; and the interchange of benefits between us 
will but make stronger a friendship which carries with it the 
recognition of benefits. I sincerely hope, Dr. Miiller, upon 
your return to Brazil, you may feel it in your heart to tell 
your people that here, while we are pursuing our business 
careers, earnest in competition, eager to improve our "Condi- 
tions, anxious for trade, desirous of the greatness and glory 
of our country, we seek those ends only through universal 
friendship, through carrying, so far as we can, the benefits of 
peace and prosperity to all our sister republics, in order that 
you and we may grow stronger and greater together, and 
that Brazil, with its enormous resources, with its patriotic 
people, with its brilliant minds, with its bright future, may 
go hand in hand with the republic of the north to ever 
happier and happier conditions for all our people. 



HOW TO DEVELOP SOUTH AMERICAN 
COMMERCE 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI COMMERCIAL 
CONGRESS. KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, NOVEMBER 20. 1906 

Sir Henry Wotton is credited with the statement that " an ambassador is an 
honest man sent abroad to he for the commonwealth", a definition half in jest but 
not without a touch of seriousness. The feeling is making itself manifest which 
will soon become universal, that an ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to 
represent the people of his own country to the people of the country to which he is 
accredited. Mr. Root, not sent to South America, but going on his own initiative, 
was an ambassador in this modern sense of the word to the Latin American states 
in 1908; and upon his return he enlarged the meaning of the function of an ambas- 
sador by representing to his countrymen the peoples whom he had visited in South 
America. The three addresses delivered before the Trans-Mississippi Commercial 
Congress, the National Convention for the Extension of Foreign Commerce of the 
United States, and the Pan American Commercial Conference are conceived in this 
spirit and were delivered in the performance of a continuous mission. 

A LITTLE less than three centuries of colonial and 
national life have brought the people inhabiting the 
United States, by a process of evolution, natural and, with 
the existmg forces inevitable, to a point of distinct and 
radical change in their economic relations to the rest of 
mankind. 

During the period now past, the energy of our people, 
directed by the formative power created in our early popu- 
lation by heredity, by environment, by the struggle for 
existence, by individual mdependence, and by free institu- 
tions, has been devoted to the internal development of our 
own country. The surplus wealth produced by our labors 
has been applied immediately to reproduction in our owti 
land. We have been cutting down forests and breaking 
virgin soil and fencing prairies and opening mines of coal and 
iron and copper and silver and gold, and building roads and 



245 



246 LVTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

canals and railroads and telegraph lines and cars and loco- 
motives and mills and furnaces and schoolhouses and colleges 
and libraries and hospitals and asylums and public buildings 
and storehouses and shops and homes. We have been draw- 
ing on the resources of the world in capital and in labor to 
aid us in our work. We have gathered strength from every 
rich and powerful nation and expended it upon these home 
undertakings; into them we have poured hundreds of mil- 
lions of money attracted from the investors of Europe. We 
have been always a debtor nation, borrowing from the rest 
of the world, drawing all possible energy towards us and 
concentrating it with our own energy upon our own enter- 
prises. The engrossing pursuit of our owti opportunities has 
excluded from our consideration and interest the enterprises 
and the possibilities of the outside world. Invention, dis- 
covery, the progress of science, capacity for organization, the 
enormous increase in the productive power of mankind, have 
accelerated our progress and have brought us to a result of 
development in every branch of internal industrial activity 
marvelous and unprecedented in the history of the world. 

Since the first election of President McKinley, the people 
of the United States have for the first time accumulated a 
surplus of capital beyond the requirements of internal devel- 
opment. That surplus is increasing with extraordinary 
rapidity. We have paid our debts to Europe and have 
become a creditor instead of a debtor nation; w^e have faced 
about; we have left the ranks of the borrowing nations and 
have entered the ranks of the investing nations. Our surplus 
energy is beginning to look beyond our own borders, through- 
out the world, to find opportunity for the profitable use of 
our surplus capital, foreign markets for our manufactures, 
foreign mines to be developed, foreign bridges and railroads 
and public works to be built, foreign rivers to be turned into 
electric power and light. As in their several ways England 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 247 

and France and Germany have stood, so we in our own way 
are beginning to stand and must continue to stand towards 
the industrial enterprise of the world. 

That we are not beginning our new role feebly is indicated 
by $1,518,561,666 of exports in the year 1905 as against 
$1,117,513,071 of imports, and by $1,743,864,500 exports in 
the year 1906 as against $1,226,563,843 of imports. Our first 
steps in the new field indeed are somewhat clumsy and un- 
skilled. In our own vast country, with oceans on either side, 
we have had too little contact with foreign peoples readily 
to understand their customs or learn their languages ; yet no 
one can doubt that we shall learn and shall understand and 
shall do our business abroad, as we have done it at home, 
with force and eflaciency. 

Coincident with this change in the United States, the 
progress of political development has been carrying the 
neighboring continent of South America out of the stage of 
militarism into the stage of industrialism. Throughout the 
greater part of that vast continent, revolutions have ceased 
to be looked upon with favor or submitted to with indiffer- 
ence; the revolutionary general and the dictator are no 
longer the objects of admiration and imitation; civic virtues 
command the highest respect; the people point with satis- 
faction and pride to the stability of their governments, to 
the safety of property and the certainty of justice; nearly 
everywhere the people are eager for foreign capital to develop 
their natural resources and for foreign immigration to occupy 
their vacant lands. 

Immediately before us, at exactly the right time, just as 
we are ready for it, great opportunities for peaceful commer- 
cial and industrial expansion to the south are presented. 
Other investing nations are already in the field — England, 
France, Germany, Italy, Spain; but the field is so vast, the 
new demands are so great, the progress so rapid, that what 



248 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

other nations have done up to this time is but a sHght advance 
in the race for the grand total. 

The opportunities are so large that figures fail to convey 
them. The area of this newly awakened continent is 
7,50'-2,848 square miles — more than two and one half times 
as large as the United States without Alaska, and more than 
double the United States including Alaska. A large part of 
this area lies within the temperate zone, w4th an equable 
and invigorating climate, free from extremes of either heat 
or cold. Farther north in the tropics are enormous expanses 
of high table-lands, stretching from the Atlantic to the foot- 
hills of the Andes, and lifted far above the tropical heats; the 
fertile valleys of the western Cordilleras are cooled by per- 
petual snows even under the equator; vast forests grow 
untouched from a soil of incredible richness. The plains of 
Argentina, the great uplands of Brazil, the mountain valleys 
of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia are suited 
to the habitation of any race, however far to the north its 
origin may have been; hundreds of millions of men can find 
healthful homes and abundant sustenance in this great 
territory. 

The population in 1900 was only 42,461,381, less than six 
to the square mile. The density of population was less than 
one-eighth of that in the state of Missouri, less than one- 
sixtieth of that in the state of Massachusetts, less than 
one-seventieth of that in England, less than one per cent of 
that in Belgium. 

With this sparse population the production of wealth is 
already enormous. The latest trade statistics show exports 
from South America to foreign countries of $745,530,000, and 
imports of $499,858,600. Of the five hundred millions of 
goods that South Amcxica buys, we sell them but $63,246,525, 
or 12.6 per cent. Of the seven hundred and forty-five 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 249 

millions that South America sells, we buy $152,092,000, or 
20.4 per cent — nearly two and a half times as much as we sell. 

Their production is increasing by leaps and bounds. In 
eleven years the exports of Chile have increased forty-five 
per cent, from $54,030,000 in 1894 to $78,840,000 in 1905. 
In eight years the exports of Peru have increased one 
hundred per cent, from $13,899,000 in 1897 to $28,758,000 
in 1905. In ten years the exports of Brazil have increased 
sixty-six per cent, from $134,062,000 in 1894 to $223,101,000 
in 1905. In ten years the exports of Argentiui. have increased 
one hundred and sixty-eight per cent, from $115,868,000 in 
1895 to $311,544,000 in 1905. 

This is only the beginning; the coffee and rubber of Brazil, 
the wheat and beef and hides of Argentina and Uruguay, the 
copper and nitrates of Chile, the copper and tin of Bohvia, 
the silver and gold and cotton and sugar of Peru, are but 
samples of what the soil and mines of that wonderful conti- 
nent are capable of yielding. 

Ninety-seven per cent of the territory of South America is 
occupied by ten independent republics living under constitu- 
tions substantially copied or adapted from our own. Under 
the new conditions of tranquillity and security which prevail 
in most of them, their eager invitation to immigrants from 
the Old World will not long pass unheeded. The pressure of 
population abroad will inevitably turn its streams of life and 
labor towards those fertile fields and valleys. The streams 
have already begun to flow; more than two hundred thou- 
sand immigrants entered the Argentine Republic last year; 
they are coming this year at the rate of over three hundred 
thousand. Many thousands of Germans have already settled 
in southern Brazil. They are most welcome in Brazil; they 
are good and useful citizens there, as they are here; I hope 
that many more will come to Brazil and every other South 



250 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

American country, and add their vigorous industry and good 
citizenship to the upbuilding of their adopted home. 

With the increase of population in such a field, under free 
institutions, with the fruits of labor and the rewards of enter- 
prise secure, the production of wealth and the increase of 
purchasing power will afford a market for the commerce of 
the world worthy to rank even with the markets of the 
Orient, as the goal of business enterprise. The material 
resources of South America are in some important respects 
complementary to our own ; that continent is weakest where 
North America is strongest as a field for manufactures; it 
has comparatively little coal and iron. In many respects the 
people of the two continents are complementary to each 
other; the South American is polite, refined, cultivated, fond 
of literature and of expression and of the graces and charms 
of life, while the North American is strenuous, intense, utili- 
tarian. Where we accumulate, they spend. WTiile we have 
less of the cheerful philosophy which finds sources of happi- 
ness in the existing conditions of life, they have less of the 
inventive faculty which strives continually to increase the pro- 
ductive power of man and lower the cost of manufacture. 
The chief merits of the peoples of the two continents are 
different; their chief defects are different. Mutual inter- 
course and knowledge cannot fail greatly to benefit both. 
Each can learn from the other; each can teach much to the 
other, and each can contribute greatly to the development 
and prosperity of the other. A large part of their products 
find no domestic competition here; a large part of our 
products will find no domestic competition there. The typi- 
cal conditions exist for that kind of trade which is profitable, 
honorable, and beneficial to both parties. 

The relations between the United States and South 
America have been chiefly political rather than commercial 
or personal. In the early days of the South American struggle 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 



251 



for independence, the eloquence of Henry Clay awakened in 
the American people a generous sympathy for the patriots 
of the south as for brethren struggling in the common cause 
of liberty. The clear-eyed, judicious diplomacy of Richard 
Rush, the American minister at the Court of St. James, 
effected a complete understanding with Great Britain for 
concurrent action in opposition to the designs of the Holy 
Alliance, already contemplating the partition of the southern 
continent among the great powers of continental Europe. 
The famous declaration of Monroe arrayed the organized 
and rapidly increasing power of the United States as an 
obstacle to European interference and made it forever plain 
that the cost of European aggression would be greater 
than any advantage which could be won even by successful 
aggression. 

That great declaration was not the chance expression of 
the opinion or the feeling of the moment; it crj^stallized the 
sentiment for human liberty and human rights which has 
saved American idealism from the demoralization of narrow 
selfishness, and has given to American democracy its true 
world power in the virile potency of a great example. It 
responded to the instinct of seK-preservation in an intensely 
practical people. It was the result of conference with Jeffer- 
son and Madison and John Quincy Adams and John C. 
Calhoun and William Wirt — a combination of political wis- 
dom, experience, and skill not easily surpassed. The partic- 
ular circumstances which led to the declaration no longer 
exist; no Holy Alliance now threatens to partition South 
America; no European colonization of the west coast 
threatens to exclude us from the Pacific. But those condi- 
tions were merely the occasion for the declaration of a prin- 
ciple of action. Other occasions for the application of the 
principle have arisen since; it needs no prophetic vision to 
see that other occasions for its application may arise here- 



252 L.VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

after. The principle declared by Monroe is as wise an 
"expression of sound political judgment today, as truthful a 
representation of the sentiments and instincts of the Ameri- 
can people today, as living in its force as an effective rule of 
conduct whenever occasion shall arise, as it was on December 
2, 1823. 

These great political services to South American inde- 
pendence, however, did not and could not in the nature of 
things create any relation between the people of South 
America and the people of the United States except a rela- 
tion of political sympathy. 

Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Blaine, sanguine, resourceful, 
and gifted with that imagination which enlarges the his- 
torian's understanding of the past into the statesman's com- 
prehension of the future, undertook to inaugurate a new era 
of American relations which should supplement political 
sympathy by personal acquaintance, by the intercourse of 
expanding trade, and by mutual helpfulness. As secretary 
of state under President Arthur, he invited the American 
nations to a conference to be held on November 24, 1882, for 
the purpose of considering and discussing the subject of pre- 
venting war between the nations of America. That invita- 
tion, abandoned by Mr. Frelinghuysen, was renewed under 
Mr. Cleveland, and on October 2, 1889, Mr. Blaine, again 
secretary of state under President Harrison, had the singular 
good fortune to execute his former design and to open the 
sessions of the first American conference at Washington. 
In an address of wisdom and lofty spirit, which should ever 
give honor to his memory, he described the assembly as — 

. . . an honorable, peaceful conference of seventeen independent Ameri- 
can powers, in which all shall meet together on terms of absolute equality; 
a conference in which there can be no attempt to coerce a single delegate 
against his own conception of the interests of his nation; a conference 
which will permit no secret understanding on any subject, but will frankly 
publish to the world all its conclusions; a conference which will tolerate no 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE ^53 

spirit of conquest, but will aim to cultivate an American sympathy as 
broad as both continents; a conference which will form no selSsh alliance 
against the older nations from which we are proud to claim inheritance — 
a conference, in fine, which will seek nothing, propose nothing, endure 
nothing that is not, in the general sense of all the delegates, timely, wise, 
and peaceful. 

The policy which Mr. Blaine inaugurated has been con- 
tinued; the Congress of the United States has approved it; 
subsequent presidents have followed it. The first confer- 
ence at Washington has been succeeded by a second confer- 
ence in Mexico, and now by a third conference in Rio de 
Janeiro; and it is to be followed in years to come by further 
successive assemblies in which the representatives of all 
American states shall acquire better knowledge and more 
perfect understanding, and be drawn together by the recog- 
nition of common interests and the kindly consideration and 
discussion of measures for mutual benefit. 

Nevertheless, Mr. Blaine was in advance of his time. In 
1881 and 1889 the United States had not reached a point 
where it could turn its energies away from its own internal 
development and direct them outward towards the develop- 
ment of foreign enterprises and foreign trade, nor had the 
South American countries reached the stage of stability in 
government and security for property necessary to their 
industrial development. 

Now, however, the time has come; both North and South 
America have grown up to Blaine's policy. The production, 
the trade, the capital, the enterprise of the United States 
have before them the opportunity to follow, and they are 
free to follow, the pathway marked out by the far-sighted 
statesmanship of Blaine for the growth of America, North 
and South, in the peaceful prosperity of a mighty commerce. 

To utilize this opportunity certain practical things must 
be done. For the most part these things must be done by a 
multitude of individual efforts; they cannot be done by 



254 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

government. Government may help to furnish faciHties for 
the doing of them, but the faciUties will be useless unless 
used by individuals. This cannot be done by resolutions of 
this or any other conmiercial body; resolutions are useless 
unless they stir individual business men to action in their 
own business affairs. The things needed have been fully and 
specifically set forth in many reports of efficient consuls and 
of highly competent agents of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor, and they have been described in countless news- 
papers and magazine articles; but all these things are worth- 
less unless they are followed by individual action. 

I will indicate some of the matters to which every pro- 
ducer and merchant who desires South American trade 
should pay attention. 

1. He should learn what the South Americans want and 
conform his product to their wants. If they think thej^ need 
heavj' castings, he should give them heavy castings and not 
expect them to buy light ones because he thinks they are 
better. If they want coarse cottons, he should give them 
coarse cottons and not expect them to buy fine cottons. It 
may not pay today, but it will pay tomorrow. The tendency 
to standardize articles of manufacture may reduce the cost 
and promote convenience, but if the consumers on the River 
Plata demand a different standard from the consumers on 
the Mississippi, you must have two standards or lose one 
market. 

2. Both for the purpose of learning what the South Ameri- 
can people want and of securing their attention to your goods, 
you must have agents who speak the Spanish or Portuguese 
language. For this there are two reasons : one is that people 
can seldom really get at each other's minds through an inter- 
preter, and the other is that nine times out of ten it is only 
through knowing the Spanish or Portuguese language that a 
North American comes to appreciate the admirable and 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 255 

attractive personal qualities of the South American, and is 
thus able to establish that kindly and agreeable personal 
relation which is so potent in leading to business relations. 

3. The American producer should arrange to conform his 
credit system to that prevailing in the country where he 
wishes to sell goods. There is no more money lost upon com- 
mercial credits in South America than there is in North 
America; but business men there have their own ways of 
doing business; they have to adapt the credits they receive 
to the credits they give. It is often inconvenient and dis- 
agreeable, and it is sometimes impossible, for them to con- 
form to our ways, and the requirement that they should do 
so is a serious obstacle to trade. 

To understand credits it is, of course, necessary to know 
something about the character, trustworthiness, and com- 
mercial standing of the purchaser, and the American pro- 
ducer or merchant who would sell goods in South America 
must have some means of knowledge upon this subject. 
This leads naturally to the next observation I have to 
make. 

4. The establishment of banks should be brought about. 
The Americans already engaged in South American trade 
could well afford to subscribe the capital and establish an 
American bank in each of the principal cities of South 
America. This is a fact, first, because nothing but very bad 
management could prevent such a bank from making money; 
capital is much needed in those cities, and six, eight, and 
ten per cent can be obtained for money upon just as safe 
security as can be had in Kansas City, St. Louis, or New York. 
It is a fact also because the American bank would furnish 
a source of information as to the standing of the South 
American purchasers to whom credit may be extended, and 
because American banks would relieve American business in 
South America from the disadvantage which now exists of 



256 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

making all its financial transactions through Europe instead 
of directly with the United States. It is unfortunately true 
that among hundreds of thousands of possible customers the 
United States now stands in a position of assumed financial 
and business inferiority to the countries through whose bank- 
ing houses all its business must be done. 

5. The American merchant should himself acquire, if he 
has not already done so, and should impress upon all his 
agents that respect for the South American to which he is 
justly entitled and which is the essential requisite to respect 
from the South American. We are different in many ways 
as to character and methods. In dealing with all foreign 
people, it is important to avoid the narrow and uninstructed 
prejudice which assumes that difference from ourselves 
denotes inferiorit3\ There is nothing that we resent so quickly 
as an assumption of superiority or evidence of condescension 
in foreigners; there is nothing that the South Americans 
resent so quickly. The South Americans are our superiors 
in some respects; we are their superiors in other respects. 
We should show to them what is best in us and see what is 
best in them. Every agent of an American producer or 
merchant should be instructed that courtesy, politeness, 
kindly consideration, are essential requisites for success in 
the South American trade. 

6. The investment of American capital in South America 
under the direction of American experts should be promoted, 
not merely upon simple investment grounds, but as a means 
of creating and enlarging trade. For simple investment pur- 
poses the opportunities are imiumerable. Good business 
judgment and good business management will be necessary 
there, of course, as they are necessary here; but, given these, 
I believe that there is a vast number of enterprises awaiting 
capital in the more advanced countries of South America, 
capable of yielding great profits, and in which the property 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 257 

and the profits will be as safe as in the United States or 
Canada. A good many such enterprises are already begun. 
I have found a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, a graduate of the Columbia School of Mines, 
and a graduate of Colonel Roosevelt's Rough Riders smelting 
copper close under the snow line of the Andes; I have ridden 
in an American car upon an American electric road, built by 
a New York engineer, in the heart of the coffee region of 
Brazil; and I have seen the waters of that river along which 
Pizarro established his line of communication in the con- 
quest of Peru, harnessed to American machinery to make 
light and power for the city of Lima. Every such point is 
the nucleus of American trade — the source of orders for 
American goods. 

7. It is absolutely essential that the means of communica- 
tion between the two countries should be improved and 
increased. 

This underlies all other considerations and it applies to 
the mail, the passenger, and the freight services. Between 
all the principal South American ports and England, Ger- 
many, France, Spain, Italy, lines of swift and commodious 
steamers ply regularly. There are five subsidized first-class 
tnail and passenger lines between Buenos Ayres and Europe; 
there is no such line between Buenos Ayres and the United 
States. Within the past two years the German, the English, 
and the Italian lines have been replacing their old steamers 
with new and swifter vessels of modern construction, accom- 
modation, and capacity. 

In the year ending June 30, 1905, there entered the port 
of Rio de Janeiro steamers and sailing vessels flying the flag 
uf Austria-Hungary, 120; of Norway, 142; of Italy, 165; of 
Argentina, 264; of France, 349; of Germany, 657; of Great 
Britain, 1785; of the United States, — no steamers and seven 
sailing vessels, two of which were in distress! 



258 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

An English firm runs a small steamer monthly between 
New York and Rio de Janeiro; the Panama Railroad Com- 
pany runs steamers between New York and the Isthmus of 
Panama; the Brazilians are starting for themselves a line 
between Rio and New York; there are two or three foreign 
concerns running slow cargo boats, and there are some for- 
eign tramp steamers. That is the sum total of American 
communication with South America beyond the Caribbean 
Sea. Not one American steamship runs to any South Amer- 
ican port beyond the Caribbean. During the past summer, 
I entered the ports of Para, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de 
Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, Bahia Blanca, 
Punta Arenas, Lota, Valparaiso, Coquimbo, Tocopilla, 
Callao, and Cartagena — all of the great ports and a large 
proportion of the secondary ports of the southern conti- 
nent. I saw only one ship, besides the cruiser that carried 
me, flying the American flag. 

The mails between South America and Europe are swift, 
regular, and certain; between South America and the United 
States they are slow, irregular, and uncertain. Six weeks is 
not an uncommon time for a letter to take between Buenos 
Ayres or Valparaiso and New York. The merchant who 
wishes to order American goods cannot know when his order 
will be received nor when it will be filled. The freight charges 
between the South American cities and American cities are 
generally and substantially higher than between the same 
cities and Europe; at many points the deliveries of freight 
are uncertain and its condition upon arrival doubtful. The 
passenger accommodations are such as to make a journey 
to the United States a trial to be endured and a journey to 
Europe a pleasure to be enjoyed. The best way to travel 
between the United States and both the southwest coast and 
the east coast of South America is to go by way of Europe, 
crossing the Atlantic twice. It is impossible that trade should 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 259 

prosper or intercourse increase or mutual knowledge grow to 
any great degree under such circumstances. The communi- 
cation is worse now than it was twenty-five years ago. So 
long as it is left in the hands of our foreign competitors in 
business, we cannot reasonably look for any improvement. 
It is only reasonable to expect that European steamship lines 
shall be so managed as to promote European trade in South 
America, rather than to promote the trade of the United 
States in South America. 

This woeful deficiency in the means to carry on and 
enlarge our South American trade is but a part of the general 
decline and feebleness of the American merchant marine, 
which has reduced us from carrying over ninety per cent of 
our export trade in our own ships to the carriage of nine per 
cent of that trade in our own ships and dependence upon 
foreign ship-owners for the carriage of ninety-one per cent. 
The true remedy and the only remedy is the establishment of 
American lines of steamships between the United States and 
the great ports of South America, adequate to render fully as 
good service as is now afforded by the European lines between 
those ports and Europe. The substantial underlying fact 
was well stated in the resolution of this Trans-Mississippi 
Congress three years ago: 

That every ship is a missionary of trade; that steamship lines work for 
their own countries just as railroad lines work for their terminal points, 
and that it is as absurd for the United States to depend upon foreign ships 
to distribute its products as it would be for a department store to depend 
upon the wagons of a competing house to dehver its goods. 

How can this defect be remedied ? The answer to this 
question must be found by ascertaining the cause of the 
decline of our merchant marine. Why is it that Americans 
have substantially retired from the foreign transport service ? 
We are a nation of maritime traditions and facility; we are 
a nation of constructive capacity, competent to build ships; 



2G0 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

we are eminent, if not preeminent, in the construction of 
machinery; we have abundant capital seeking investment; 
we have courage and enterprise shrinking from no competi- 
tion in any field which we choose to enter. Why, then, have 
we retired from this field in which we were once conspicuously 
successful ? 

I think the answer is twofold. 

1. The higher wages and the greater cost of maintenance 
of American officers and crews make it impossible to compete 
on equal terms with foreign ships. The scale of living and 
the scale of pay of American sailors are fixed by the standard 
of wages and of living in the United States, and those are 
maintained at a high level by the protective tariff. The 
moment the American passes beyond the limits of his coun- 
try and engages in ocean transportation, he comes into com- 
petition with the lower foreign scale of wages and of living. 
Mr, Joseph L. Bristow, in his report upon trade conditions 
affecting the Panama Railroad, dated June 14, 1905, gives 
in detail the cost of operating an American steamship with 
a tonnage of approximately thirty-five hundred tons as com- 
pared with the cost of operating a specified German steam- 
ship of the same tonnage, and the differences aggregate 
$15,315 per annum greater cost for the American steamship 
than for the German; that is $4.37 per ton. He gives also in 
detail the cost of maintaining another American steamship 
with a tonnage of approximate!}^ twenty-five hundred tons as 
compared with the cost of operating a specified British steam- 
ship of the same tonnage, and the differences aggregate 
$18,289.68 per annum greater cost for the American steam- 
ship than for the British; that is $7.31 per ton. It is manifest 
that if the German steamship were content with a profit of 
less than $15,000 per annum, and the British with a profit 
of less than $18,000 per annum, the American ships would 
have to go out of business. 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 261 

2. The principal maritime nations of the world, anxious to 
develop their trade, to promote their shipbuilding industry, 
to have at hand transports and auxiliary cruisers in case of 
war, are fostering their steamship lines by the payment of 
subsidies. England is paying to her steamship lines between 
six and seven million dollars a year; it is estimated that since 
1840 she has paid to them between two hundred and fifty 
and three hundred millions. The enormous development of 
her commerce, her preponderant share of the carrying trade 
of the world, and her shipyards crowded with construction 
orders from every part of the earth indicate the success of her 
policy. France is paying about eight million dollars a year; 
Italy and Japan, between three and four million each; Ger- 
many, upon the initiative of Bismarck, is building up her 
trade with wonderful rapidity by heavy subventions to her 
steamship lines and by giving special differential rates of 
carriage over her railroads for merchandise shipped by those 
lines. Spain, Norway, Austria-Hungary, Canada, all sub- 
sidize their own lines. It is estimated that about $28,000,000 
a year are paid by our commercial competitors to their steam- 
ship lines. 

Against these advantages of his competitor the American 
shipowner has to contend; and it is manifest that the sub- 
sidized ship can afford to carry freight at cost for a period 
long enough to drive him out of business. 

We are living in a world not of natural competition, but of 
subsidized competition. State aid to steamship lines is as 
much a part of the commercial system of our day as state 
employment of consuls to promote business. 

It will be observed that both of these disadvantages under 
which the American shipowner labors are artificial; they are 
created by governmental action — one by our own Govern- 
ment in raising the standard of wages and living, by the 
protective tariff; the other by foreign governments in paying 



262 L.\TIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

subsidies to their ships for the promotion of their own trade. 
For the American shipowner it is not a contest of intel- 
Hgence, skill, industry, and thrift against similar qualities 
in his competitor; it is a contest against his competitors 
and his competitors' governments and his own govern- 
ment also. 

Plainly, these disadvantages created by governmental 
action can be neutralized only by governmental action, and 
should be neutralized by such action. 

What action ought our Government to take for the accom- 
plishment of this just purpose ? Three kinds of action have 
been advocated. 

1. A law providing for free ships — that is, permitting 
Americans to buy ships in other countries and bring them 
under the American flag. Plainly, this would not at all meet 
the difficulties which I have described. The only thing it 
would accomplish would be to overcome the excess in cost 
of building a ship in an American shipyard over the cost of 
building it in a foreign shipyard; but since all the materials 
which enter into an American ship are entirely relieved of 
duty, the difference in cost of construction is so slight as to 
be practically a negligible quantity, and to afford no sub- 
stantial obstacle to the revival of American shipping. The 
expedient of free ships, therefore, would be merely to sacri- 
fice our American shipbuilding industry, which ought to be 
revived and enlarged with American shipping, and to sacrifice 
it without receiving any substantial benefit. It is to be 
observed that Germany, France, and Italy all have attempted 
to build up their own shipping by adopting the policy of free 
ships, have failed in the experiment, have abandoned it, and 
have adopted in its place the policy of subsidy. 

2. It has been proposed to establish a discriminating tariff 
duty in favor of goods imported in American ships — that is 
to say, to impose higher duties upon goods imported in for- 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMIVIERCE 263 

eign ships than are imposed on goods imported in American 
ships. We tried that once many years ago and abandoned 
it. In its place we have entered into treaties of commerce 
and navigation with the principal countries of the world, 
expressly agreeing that no such discrimination shall be made 
between their vessels and ours. To sweep away all those 
treaties and enter upon a war of commercial retahation and 
reprisal for the sake of accomplishing indirectly what can be 
done directly should not be seriously considered. 

3. There remains the third and obvious method: to 
neutralize the artificial disadvantages imposed upon Ameri- 
can shipping through the action of our own government and 
foreign governments by an equivalent advantage in the form 
of a subsidy or subvention. In my opinion this is what 
should be done; it is the sensible and fair thing to do. It is 
what must be done if we would have a revival of our shipping 
and the desired development of our foreign trade. We can- 
not repeal the protective tariff; no political party dreams of 
repealing it; we do not wish to lower the standard of Ameri- 
can living or American wages. We should give back to the 
shipowner what we take away from him for the purpose of 
maintaining that standard; and unless we do give it back 
we shall continue to go without ships. How can the expendi- 
ture of public money for the improvement of rivers and 
harbors to promote trade be justified upon any grounds which 
do not also sustain this proposal ? Would any one reverse 
the pohcy that granted aid to the Pacific railroads, the pion- 
eers of our enormous internal commerce, the agencies that 
built up the great traffic which has enabled half a dozen 
other roads to be built in later years without assistance ? 
Such subventions would not be gifts. They would be at once 
compensation for injuries inflicted upon American shipping 
by American laws and the consideration for benefits received 
by the whole American people — not the shippers or the 



264 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

shipbuilders or the sailors alone, but by every manufacturer, 
every miner, every farmer, every merchant whose prosperity 
depends upon a market for his products. 

The provision for such just compensation should be care- 
fully shaped and directed so that it will go to individual 
advantage only so far as the individual is enabled by it to 
earn a reasonable profit by building up the business of the 
countrj'. 

A bill is now pending in Congress which contains such 
provisions; it has passed the Senate and is now before the 
House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries; it is 
known as Senate bill No. 529, Fifty-ninth Congress, First 
Session. It provides specifically that the Postmaster-General 
may pay to American steamships, of specified rates of speed, 
carrying mails upon a regular service, compensation not to 
exceed the following amounts: For a line from an Atlantic 
port to Brazil, monthly, $150,000 a year; for a line from an 
Atlantic port to Uruguay and Argentina, monthly, $187,500 
a year; for a line from a Gulf port to Brazil, monthly, 
$137,500 a year; for a line from each of two Gulf ports and 
from New Orleans to Central America and the Isthmus of 
Panama, weekly, $75,000 a year; for a line from a Gulf port 
to Mexico, weekly, $50,000 a year; for a line from a Pacific 
coast port to Mexico, Central America, and the Isthmus of 
Panama, fortnightly, $120,000 a year. For these six regular 
lines a total of $720,000. The payments provided are no 
more than enough to give the American ships a fair living 
chance in the competition. 

There are other wise and reasonable provisions in the bill 
relating to trade with the Orient, to tramp steamers, and to 
a naval reserve, but I am now concerned with the provisions 
for trade to the south. The hope of such a trade lies chiefly 
in the passage of that bill. 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 265 

Postmaster-General Cortelyou, in his report for 1905, said: 

Congress has authorized the Postmaster-General, by the act of 1891, 
to contract with the owners of American steamships for ocean mail service 
and has realized the impracticability of commanding suitable steamships 
in the interest of the postal service alone by requiring that such steamers 
shall be of a size, class, and equipment which will promote commerce and 
become available as auxiliary cruisers of the navy in case of need. The 
compensation allowed to such steamers is found to be wholly inadequate 
to secure the proposals contemplated ; hence, advertisements from time to 
time have failed to develop any bids for much-needed service. This is 
especially true in regard to several of the countries of South America, with 
which we have cordial relations and which, for manifest reasons, should 
have direct mail connections with us. I refer to Brazil and countries south 
of it. Complaints of serious delay to mails for these countries have become 
frequent and emphatic, leading to the suggestion on the part of certain 
officials of the government that for the present and imtil more satisfactory 
direct communication can be established, important mails should be dis- 
patched to South America by way of European ports and on European 
steamers, which would not only involve the United States in the payment 
of double transit rates to a foreign country for the dispatch of its mails to 
countries of our own hemisphere, but might seriously embarrass the 
government in the exchange of important official and diplomatic corre- 
spondence. 

The fact that the government claims exclusive control of the trans- 
mission of letter mail throughout its own territory would seem to imply 
that it should secure and maintain the exclusive jurisdiction when neces- 
sary, of its mails on the high seas. The unprecedented expansion of trade 
and foreign commerce justifies prompt consideration of an adequate foreign 
mail service. 

It is difficult to believe, but it is true, that out of this faulty 
ocean mail service the government of the United States is 
making a large profit. The actual cost to the govern- 
ment last year of the ocean mail service to foreign coun- 
tries other than Canada and Mexico was $2,965,624.21, 
while the proceeds reahzed by the government from postage 
between the United States and foreign countries other than 
Canada and Mexico was $6,008,807.53, leaving the profit to 
the United States of $3,043,183.32; that is to say, under 



266 L^VTIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

existing law the government of the United States, having 
assumed the monopoly of carrying the mails for the people 
of the country, is making a profit of $3,000,000 per annum 
by rendering cheap and inefficient service. Every dollar 
of that three millions is made at the expense of the com- 
merce of the United States. AMiat can be plainer than that 
the government ought to expend at least the profits that 
it gets from the ocean mail service in making the ocean 
mail service eflScient. One quarter of those profits would 
establish all these lines which I have described between the 
United States and South and Central America, and give us, 
besides a good mail service, enlarged markets for the pro- 
ducers and merchants of the United States who pay the 
postage from which the profits come.^ 

In his last message to Congress, President Roosevelt said: 

To the spread of our trade in peace and the defense of our flag in war 
a great and prosp>erous merchant marine is indispensable. We should have 
ships of our own and seamen of our own to convey our goods to neutral 
markets, and in case of need to reenforce our battle line. It cannot but be 
a source of regret and uneasiness to us that the lines of communication with 
our sister republics of South America should be chiefly under foreign 
control. It is not a good thing that American merchants and manufac- 
turers should have to send their goods and letters to South America via 
Europe if they wish security and dispatch. Even on the Pacific, where 
our ships have held their own better than on the Atlantic, otu* merchant 
flag is now threatened through the liberal aid bestowed by other govern- 
ments on their own steam lines. I ask your earnest consideration of the 
report with which the Merchant Marine Commission has followed its long 
and careful inquiry. 

The bill now pending in the House is a bill framed upon 
the report of that Merchant Marine Commission. The ques- 
tion whether it shall become a law depends upon your Rep- 
resentatives in the House. You have the judgment of the 

* There would be some modification of these figures if the cost of getting the 
mails to and from the exchange oflSces were charged against the account; but this 
is not separable from the general domestic cost and would not materially change 
the result. 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 267 

Postmaster-General, you have the judgment of the Senate, 
you have the judgment of the President; if you agree with 
these judgments and wish the bill which embodies them 
to become a law, say so to your Representatives. Say it to 
them individually and directly, for it is your right to advise 
them and it will be their pleasure to hear from you what 
legislation the interests of theu* constituents demand. 

The great body of Congressmen are always smcerely desu-- 
ous to meet the just wishes of their constituents and to do 
what is for the public interest; but m this great country they 
are continually assailed by innumerable expressions of private 
opinion and by innumerable demands for the expenditure of 
public money; they come to discriminate very clearly between 
private opinion and public opinion, and between real pubhc 
opinion and the manufactured appearance of public opinion; 
they know that when there is a real demand for any kind 
of legislation it will make itself known to them through 
a multitude of individual voices. Resolutions of commercial 
bodies frequently indicate nothmg except that the proposer 
of the resolution has a positive opinion and that no one else 
has mterest enough m the subject to oppose it. Such reso- 
lutions by themselves, therefore, have comparatively little 
effect; they are effective only when the support of individ- 
ual expressions shows that they really represent a genuine 
and general opinion. 

It is for you and the business men all over the country 
whom you represent to show to the Representatives in Con- 
gress that the producing and commercial interests of the 
country really desire a practical measure to enlarge the 
markets and increase the foreign trade of the United States, 
by enabling American shippmg to overcome the disadvan- 
tages imposed upon it by foreign governments for the benefit 
of their trade, and by our government for the benefit of our 
home industry. 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 

ADDRESS AT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE EXTENSION 
OF THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES, WASH- 
INGTON, D. C, JANUARY 14, 1907 

I THANK you for your cordial greeting, and I thank you, 
Mr. Chairman, for the very kind terms which you have 
used regarding myself. I have come here with pleasure, not 
to make a prepared address, or to attempt oratory, but to talk 
a few minutes about subjects of common interest to us all. 

I wish first to express the satisfaction that I feel in the 
existence of this convention. The process of discussion, con- 
sideration, mutual information, and comparison of opinion 
among the people who are not in office, is the process that 
puts under the forms of representative government the reality 
of freedom and of a self-governing people. The discussion 
which takes place in such meetings as this, and which is 
stimulated by such meetings as this, in the club, in all the 
local associations and places where men meet throughout 
the country, is at once far removed from the secret and selfish 
devices of the lobbyist and from the stolid indifference which 
characterizes a people willing to be governed without them- 
selves having a voice in government. 

I congratulate you that you have come here to the nation's 
capital to discuss and consider subjects which are properly 
of national concern; that you have not come to ask the 
national government to do anything which you ought to do 
yourselves at home in your separate states, but to consider 
the exercise of the great commerce power of the nation, the 
power which from the beginning of our government has been 
fittingly placed in the hands of the national administration. 

269 



270 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

To my view we are advancing, and the whole world is 
advancing, in the opportunities and in the spirit and method 
which create opportunities for that kind of commerce which 
is profitable and beneficial to both parties the world over. 
Our relations continually grow more reasonable, more sen- 
sible and kindly with Europe and all the powers of Europe, 
with our vigorous and growing neighbor to the north, with 
our rapidly advancing and developing neighbors to the 
south, and with the nations that face us on the other side of 
the Pacific. Little occasions for controversy, little causes 
for irritation, little incidents of conflicting interests continu- 
ally arise, as they do among friends and neighbors in the 
same town, but the general trend of international relations 
is a trend towards mutual respect, mutual consideration, and 
substantial good understanding. 

Of course our relations to Europe, and our relations to the 
Orient, and our relations to Canada have long been much 
discussed and are worthy of discussion; but it seems to me 
that the subject which at this particular time opens before 
us with more of an appearance, and just appearance, of new 
opportunity than any other, is the subject of our relations to 
the Latin American nations to the south. I am not going 
to detain you by any extended discussion of that subject. 
I made a long — perhaps too long — speech about it before 
the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress at Kansas City 
a few weeks ago, and that has been printed in various forms 
and some of you, perhaps, have seen it or will see it. The 
substance is that just at the time when the United States 
has reached a point of development in its wonderful resources 
and accumulation of capital so that it is possible for us to 
turn our attention from the development of our own internal 
affairs to reach out into other lands for investment, for the 
fruits of profitable enterprise, for the expansion and exten- 
sion of trade — just at that time the great and fertile and 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 271 

immeasurably rich countries of South America are emerging 
from the conditions of internal warfare, of continual revolu- 
tion, of disturbed and unsafe property conditions, and are 
acquiring stability in government, safety for property, capac- 
ity to protect enterprise. So that we may look with certainty 
to an enormous increase of population and of wealth through- 
out the continent of South America, and we may look with 
certainty for an enormous increase in purchasing power as a 
consequence of that increase in population and wealth. 

These two things coming together spread before us an 
opportunity for our trade and our enterprise surpassed by 
none anywhere in the world or at any time in our history. 

It was with this view that last summer I spent three 
months, in response to the kind invitations of various Gov- 
ernments of South America, in visiting their capitals, in 
meeting their leading men, in becoming familiar with their 
conditions, and in trying to represent to them what I believe 
to be the real relation of respect and kindliness on the part of 
the people of the United States. 

I wish you all could have seen with what genuine reciprocal 
friendship they accepted the message that I brought to them. 
We have long been allied to them by political sentiment. 
Now Kes before us the opportunity — with their stable 
governments and protection for enterprise and property, and 
our increased capital — now lies before us the opportunity 
to be allied to them also by the bonds of personal intercourse 
and profitable trade. 

This situation is accentuated by the fact that we are turn- 
ing our attention to the south and engagmg there in the great 
enterprise of constructmg the Panama Canal. No one can 
tell what effect that will have upon the commerce of the 
world, but we do know that there never has been in history 
a case of a great change in the trade routes of the world 
which has not powerfully affected the rise and fall of nations. 



272 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

the development of commerce, and the development of 
civilization. 

We, by the expenditure of a part of our recently acquired 
capital, are about to open a new trade route that will bring 
our Atlantic and Gulf ports into immediate, close intercourse 
with all the Pacific coasts of South and Central America, 
and which will bring our Pacific ports into immediate and 
close relation with all the countries about the Caribbean Sea 
and the eastern coast of South America. The combination 
of political sentiment which has long allied us with the Latin 
American countries, the opportunity which comes from their 
change of conditions and our increase of capital, and the 
effects that must necessarily follow the opening of the great 
trade route of the Panama Canal, all point to the development 
of American enterprise and American trade to the south. 

Now, in considering that view of the future there are cer- 
tain practical considerations that necessarily arise. How are 
we to adapt ourselves to this new condition ? How are we 
to utilize this opportunity ? One subject naturally presents 
itself, and that is the increase of means of communication 
through which our intercourse and our trade may be carried 
on. And that may be in two ways: one by the promotion 
of the railroad, long ago projected, and in constant course of 
development — the road that we speak of as the Pan Ameri- 
can road. When we speak of the Pan American Railroad 
we are speaking of something of the future, and which exists 
today only in a great number of links, each of which has its 
separate name. They are being built, and being built with 
great rapidity. In Mexico, in Guatemala, in Bolivia, in Peru, 
in the Argentine, in other countries pieces of road are being 
built — many of them by American capital and American 
enterprise; some of them by capital coming from other 
countries — promoted by the strong desire of the people of 
these Latin American countries to break out from their iso- 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 273 

lation and to be brought into closer contact with the rest of 
the world. Those pieces are being built until now, when the 
work actually under contract is completed, there will be less 
than 4,000 miles remaining to be built to make a complete 
railroad which will unite the city of Washington with the 
city of Buenos Ayres in the Argentine. 

One of the objects of the Rio conference last summer was 
to promote and further the interest of all American countries 
in the building of this road, and I am glad to believe that the 
action taken by that conference has had that effect. The line 
now running to the south is almost through Mexico — has 
almost reached the Guatemala line; and lines are being built 
in Guatemala to connect with that; and within the life of 
men now sitting in this room it will be possible for passengers 
and merchandise to travel by rail practically the entire 
length of both the North and South American continents. 

The other method of communication is by steamships. 
We are lamentably deficient in that. A great many fine, 
swift, commodious lines of steamships run between the 
South American ports and Europe and very few and com- 
paratively poor ships run between those ports and the ports 
of the United States. No American line runs south of the 
Caribbean Sea. Our mails are slow and uncertain. It is a 
matter of hardship for a passenger to go directly between the 
great South American ports and the great North American 
ports, while the mails run swiftly and certainly to and from 
Europe, and it is a pleasure for a passenger to go between 
one of those ports and the European ports. The Postmaster- 
General reports that the best way for him to get the 
despatches from my Department to our ministers in South 
America with certainty and swiftness is to send them to 
Europe and have them sent from there to South America. 
That condition of things ought not to continue if we can 
prevent it. 



274 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

One great reason why it exists is, that American shipping 
is driven off the seas by two great obstacles interposed in its 
way by legishition. One is the legislation of foreign countries 
which has subsidized foreign shipping; the other is the legis- 
lation of our own country which by the protective tariff has 
raised the standard of living of all Americans — a most 
beneficent result — has raised the standard of living of all 
Americans so that American ships paying and feeding their 
oflScers and men according to the American standard cannot 
compete on even terms with foreign ships, the cost of whose 
officers and men is under the foreign standard. 

If our Government will equalize these artificial disadvan- 
tages under which our vessels labor and will do for them 
enough to make up to them the disadvantage caused by 
raising the standard of living of the men they employ and 
to make up to them the disadvantage, coming from the fact 
that their foreign competitors are subsidized by foreign 
governments for the purpose of promoting foreign trade 
against American trade, we will have an American merchant 
marine and American ships to carry passengers and freight 
and mails between South and North American ports. A bill 
to provide that is pending in Congress now. It has passed 
the Senate. It is in the Committee of the House. I hope that 
all of you who agree with me in believing that our Govern- 
ment ought to be fair to the American merchant marine will 
say so out loud; say so to your neighbors; say so in such a 
way that American public opinion will realize that that kind 
of fair treatment is not a matter of the lobbyist, but is a 
matter of broad, American public policy. 

There is one other subject — very important as a part of 
this general outlook and forecast of American policy looking 
towards the south. That is our special relation towards the 
countries, the smaller countries about the Caribbean, and 
particularly the West Indian countries, the islands that lie 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 275 

directly on the route between our ports and the Panama 
Canal. Some of them have had a pretty hard time. The 
conditions of their lives have been such that it has been diffi- 
cult for them to maintain stable and orderly governments. 
They have been cursed, some of them, by frequent revolu- 
tion. Poor Cuba, with her wonderful climate and richness 
of soil, has suffered. We have done the best we could to help 
her, and we mean to go on doing the best we can to help her. 

I think the key of our attitude towards these countries 
can be put in three sentences: 

First. We do not want to take them for ourselves. 

Second. We do not want any foreign nations to take them 
for themselves. 

Third. We want to help them. 

Now, we can help them; help them govern themselves, 
help them to acquhe capacity for seK-government, help them 
along the road that Brazil and the Argentine and Chile and 
Peru and a number of other South American countries have 
travelled — up out of the discord and turmoil of continual 
revolution into a general pubHc sense of justice and deter- 
mination to maiutaui order. 

There is a good deal of talk in the newspapers about the 
annexation of Cuba. Never! so long as the people of Cuba 
do not themselves give up the effort to govern themselves. 
Our efforts should be towards helpmg them to be self-govern- 
ing. That is what we are trying to do now and what we 
mean to try to do. 

So with Santo Domingo. Poor Santo Domingo! With 
her phenomenal richness of soil, her people ought to be 
among the richest and happiest on earth; but the island has 
been the scene of almost continued revolution and bloodshed. 
Her politics are purely personal, and have been a continual 
struggle of this and that and the other man to secure ascen- 
dancy and power. She has come to us for help. She is 



276 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

burdened with an enormous amount of debt, much of it 
fraudulent, much of it created by revolutionary governments 
in the bush or by regular governments in distress, needing a 
little money to save themselves from being overthrown, in 
desperate circumstances, ready to make any sort of bargain, 
to pay any sort of interest, to promise anything to get imme- 
diate relief. Many debts have been created in that way 
and are hanging over her, foreign debts as to which she has 
pledged the resources of this custom-house to the creditors 
of this country, and of that custom-house to the creditors of 
that country, and of another custom-house to the creditors 
of the third country. She is unable to pay interest; unable to 
make any settlement because she could not give anything 
to carry out any settlement. With this enormous debt hang- 
ing over her like a pall, and with this record of continual 
revolution and strife depriving her of credit, depriving her 
of courage and of hope, she came to us to help her. And we 
are trying to arrange so that she may have the little — very 
Httle — moral support of the United States which is neces- 
sary to settle her debts, to insure the honest collection of her 
revenue and its application to carry out the settlement, and 
that she may be able to stand and walk alone. Now. we are 
trying to make an arrangement of that kind by a treaty; 
trying to perform the office of friendship and discharge the 
duty of good neighborhood towards Santo Domingo. I hope 
you will take a little interest in this unfortunate neighbor 
and try to create a little interest in her on the part of our 
people; for our treatment of Santo Domingo, like our treat- 
ment of Cuba, is but a part of a great pohcy which shall in 
the years to come determine the relations of this vast coun- 
try, with its wealth and enterprise, to the millions of men 
and women and the countless millions of trade and treasure 
of the great world to the south. 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 277 

Our treatment of Santo Domingo, like our treatment of 
Cuba, is but a part of the working out of the policy of peace 
and righteousness as the basis for wealth and prosperity, in 
place of the policy of force, of plimder, of conquest, as the 
means of acquiring wealth. 

The question is frequently asked. Should not a series of 
reciprocity treaties be adopted for the purpose of promoting 
our relations with these southern countries ? That is not so 
important in regard to the South American countries as it 
might seem at first, because so greatly do the productions of 
North and South America vary that most of the products 
of South America already come into the United States free, as 
they are not competing with our products. Between eighty 
and ninety per cent of all our imports from South America 
are now admitted to the United States free of duty. The 
great country of Brazil — over ninety per cent of all our 
imports from there come in free of duty. So that the field 
to be covered by reciprocity treaties with those countries is 
comparatively narrow, and that question is not a question 
of first importance in regard to our relations with them. 
There are, however, some countries in regard to whose 
products I should like very much to see an opportunity to 
make reciprocity treaties. 

But this opens up a broader subject. I do not think that 
the subject of reciprocity can now be adequately considered 
or discussed without going into that broader subject, and 
that is the whole form of our tariff laws. 

In my judgment the United States must come to a maxi- 
mum and minimum tariff. 

A single straight-out tariff was all very well in the world 
of single straight-out tariffs; but we have passed on, during 
the course of years, into a world for the most part of maxi- 
mum and minimum tariffs, and with our single-rate tariff 



278 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

we are left with very little opportunity to reciprocate good 
treatment from other countries in their tariffs and very little 
opportunity to defend ourselves against bad treatment. Of 
course this is the side that I look at; this is my point of view. 
I may be wrong, but this is the way it looks to me — that 
any country in the world can put up its tariff against our 
products as compared with similar products from another 
country without suffering for it so far as our present laws are 
concerned. We go on taking that country's products at just 
the same rates as we did before. Any country in the world 
knows that if it puts down our products in its tariff it will 
get no benefit from it because we will have to charge it 
the same rates that we charge the country that treats us the 
worst. The maximum and minimum tariff would be free 
from one serious difficulty that arises in the negotiation of 
reciprocity treaties. That difficulty is this: When you make 
a reciprocity treaty with Country A, agreeing to receive cer- 
tain products from that country at less than our tariff 
schedules, you are immediately confronted by Country B, 
which is equally friendly with us, treats us as well or per- 
haps better, and to which we cannot with good grace refuse 
the same. Then comes Country C with the same demand, 
and D and E. The result is that with that fair and equal 
treatment which we wish to accord to all countries there is 
a tendency, by means of successive reciprocity treaties, to 
change the whole form of the tariff, and to change it without 
that full and general discussion, without that deliberate con- 
sideration of the effect upon all American interests, which 
there ought to be in dealing with this complicated and inter- 
woven business of tariff rates. Now, a maximum and mini- 
mum tariff would enable us to deal equally with all countries, 
as we are friendly, and ought to be, with all countries. It 
would be free from invidious discrimination; it would enable 
us to protect ourselves against those that use us badly, to 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 279 

reward those that use us well; and it would proceed upon a 
general and intelligent consideration of all interests. 

There is but one other subject that I want to speak to 
you about, one to which the convention that met here last 
year contributed very much, and that is representation 
abroad under the American consular system. 

The American consular service, I had the honor to say 
here last year, has been an exceptionally uneven one. There 
have been many very good men in it, and there have been 
many men in it who were simply passing the remainder of 
their days in dignified retirement. That came along natur- 
ally enough when we did not have much foreign trade and 
we were not pushing much for foreign trade; but the strain 
on that machinery has of late years become rather great. 
We are pushing out in all the world for trade, and our people 
want information. Some of them need it — all want it — 
and they need to be well represented among the people of the 
other coimtries where they want to do business. And 
wherever there is a weak spot there is trouble and dissatis- 
faction. So that with changing times a change in method 
has become necessary. 

Congress passed a law at the last session, the material 
parts of which had been hanging in Congress for over thir- 
teen years, introduced years ago by men with foresight a 
little in advance of the practical requirements of the time. 
Their ideas did not receive endorsement and practical effect 
until the last session. The Congress in that law classified 
the consulates in different grades. They provided an inspec- 
tion service, so that now we have inspectors who have been 
selected from among the most able and efficient consuls and 
whose business it is to see what consuls are doing and whether 
they are doing anything, so that now the State Department 
will not be the last place where information is received about 
the misdeeds of a consul. 



280 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

They made provision that all fees should be turned into 
the Treasury and the sole compensation of consuls should be 
their salary, thus closing the door to temptation. 

They did in that act a number of very good things for the 
consular service. There was a clause in the bill originally 
which provided that all appointments to the higher positions 
in the service should be by promotion from the lower posi- 
tions, and that all appointments to the lower positions should 
be upon examination. That was stricken out because it was 
considered that Congress had no constitutional right to limit 
the President in that way. There is a good deal to be said 
for that view; but it is equally true of appointments to the 
army and to the navy, yet there have stood upon the statute 
books of the United States for many years provisions for the 
filling of higher grades in the army and navy by promotion, 
and for the appointment to the lower grades only upon a 
satisfactory examination. And those provisions, while 
doubtless the President could break over them with the con- 
sent of the Senate, nevertheless have constituted a kind of 
agreement between the President and the Senate, having 
the appointing power, and Congress which creates the oflBces 
and appropriates the money to pay them, as to how the offices 
are to be filled. I would like to see that kind of an agreement 
applied to the consular service, so that the method of selec- 
tion could be settled, and permanently settled, as it has been 
in the army and the navy. 

Immediately after the passage of the consular reorgani- 
zation act with that clause omitted, the President made an 
order, known as the Order of June 27, 1906, in which he 
provided that all the upper grades should be filled by pro- 
motion and that the lower grades should be filled only upon 
examination, and prescribed the method of the examination, 
and also provided that as between candidates of equal merit 
the appointments should be made so as to equalize them 



SOUTH AMERICAN COMMERCE 281 

throughout the United States, as they ought to be equahzed 
so far as it is practicable, and also that the appointments 
should be made without regard to the political affiliations of 
the candidates. 

Under that order we will have the opportunity, in fillmg 
all of the important consulates, to get the best possible evi- 
dence as to whether a man is fit for the important place by 
scanning the work of the young men in the lower places — 
better than a dozen examinations and better than ten 
thousand letters of recommendation. 

Under that plan we will put m the young men who come 
along for the lower grades of places and bar out the lazy 
fellows that want to fall back on a Hving they are not ener- 
getic enough to get for themselves. And when we have 
seen how the young fellows work in the lower places we will 
pick out the men here and there who are bom consuls and 
put them into the higher places. 

Now, that is the law for this Administration. It is good 
until March 4, 1909. What will become of it then no one 
can tell. I should be very glad if the public opinion of the 
country would say to Congress: Agree to that in such a way 
that it will be permanent for all time. 

Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention and again 
renew my expression of satisfaction at the intelligent public 
service you have rendered by leaving your homes and your 
occupations to come here and do the work of self-governing 
American citizens. 



INDIVIDUAL EFFORT IN TRADE 
EXPANSION 

ADDRESS AT THE PAN AMERICAN COMMERCIAL CONFERENCE 
WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 17, 1911 

GOVERNMENTS may hold doors open all over the 
world, but if there is no one to go through them it is an 
empty form, and people get tired of holding doors open as 
an empty form. The claims of a government to consideration 
soon come to be regarded as pretentious unless there are 
really substantial interests behind the claims. No govern- 
ment, and least of all our government, least of all a demo- 
cratic republic, can make commerce to go through open 
doors, to avail itself of fair and equal treatment, and to give 
substance and reality to the theoretical increase of amity 
and friendship between nations. The people of the country 
must do it themselves, and they must do it by individual 
enterprise; they must do it by turning their attention toward 
the opportunities that are afforded by friendly governments, 
by availing themselves of those opportunities, and by carry- 
ing on their business through availing themselves of them. 
But while it is a matter of individual enterprise, while that 
must be the basis of all development and progress, all 
advance, all extension, nevertheless, there must be something 
besides the individual enterprise. The great principle of 
organization which is revolutionizing the business and the 
social enterprise of the world, applies here as it applies else- 
where. No single business can make very much advance 
except as all other business of the country makes advance. 
No one can go into a new field very far in advance of others; 
and the way for each man to make his business successful in 

883 



284 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

a new field is to do his share as a member of the community, 
as a citizen of his country, as one of the great business 
organizations of his country, to advance the trade, the com- 
merce, the influence of his country as a whole, in the field 
into which he wishes to enter. A recognition of the depen- 
dence of each man's business for its prosperity and progress 
upon the prosperity and progress of the business of all is 
necessary in order that there be real progress. 

Now, there are governments which undertake actively to 
lead in this direction, and they are governments which are 
maldng enormous progress. Germany, a country regarding 
which INIr. White has just spoken in such apt and appropriate 
terms, leads, and to a considerable extent in various direc- 
tions, it requires the combination of her manufacturers, her 
producers, and her commercial concerns. Japan practically 
does also. There is solidaritj' brought about by the wonder- 
ful organization of that combination; so that it is one for all, 
and all for one, under government leadership. We cannot 
do it here. Our country cannot take that kind of lead. Our 
people do not conceive of that as a function of government, 
and as far as the activities of our government are concerned, 
they are largely engaged in breaking up organizations which 
do increase the industrial efficiency of our country. I do not 
want to be understood as criticising that. It is all right to 
break them up when they are taking too great a portion of the 
field for themselves. It is all right and important to break 
them up when they are monopolizing the means of subsis- 
tence that should be spread throughout the great body of 
the people. But we must recognize the fact that when 
our government does enforce the law — a just law, wise law 
— against our great commercial and our great industrial 
organizations, it reduces the industrial efficiency of the coun- 
try. There is only one way to counteract that effect, not 
violating any law, but securing through organization the 



TRADE EXPANSION 285 

united action, and concentrated action of great numbers of 
Americans who have a common purpose, substituting that 
kind of organization for the organizations which it is the duty 
of our government to break up, because they are contrary to 
our laws. 

I am much gratified by this meeting and by the associa- 
tion of so many practical men, business men, who, by unit- 
ing, are really creating a new force in this direction, upon 
which I am sure we ought to move. 

Let me say one thing about the practical direction of your 
efforts. The so-called Ship Subsidy bill has been reduced 
now to nothing but the proposition that the Government 
should be authorized to pay out of the profits of the ocean 
mail service adequate compensation to procure the carriage 
of the mails by American steamers to South America; that 
is what it has come down to. It passed the Senate, as IVIr. 
White has said, only by the casting of the vote of the Vice- 
President, and I do not know what will be done with it in the 
House. I am afraid in these last days that it may be lost in 
the shuffle. 

There are two reasons why that perfectly simple and 
reasonable proposition failed to carry a great majority of 
the Senate, and fails — if it does fail — to be certain of 
passing the House. One is because there is a difference 
between the people who want to have the thing accomplished 
about the way in which it should be accomplished. That is 
one of the most common things in the world. A certain set 
of men who want to have a revival of our merchant marine, 
say the way to do it is to pay subsidies, the way to do it is to 
equalize the differences between the cost of maintaining and 
running an American ship and the cost of maintaining and 
running a foreign ship, and to equal the subsidies paid by 
practically all the other great commercial nations to their 
steamship lines. Another set of men who equally desire to 



286 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

restore our merchant marine, say that is not the right way; 
the right way is to throw open the doors and enable our 
people to buy their ships abroad. Still others say the true 
way is to authorize our ships to employ crews and officers of 
the low-priced men of the world, relieve them from the 
obligations imposed upon them in respect of the employ- 
ment of Americans, people of the United States, who will 
require the high standard of living that has been produced 
in the United States by the operation of our protective sys- 
tem, relieve them from the obligations which are imposed 
upon them by our laws in regard to the requirements of the 
crew, the air space, the food, and the treatment that a crew 
is to receive, so that it will be cheaper to run an American 
ship. Now, between these different sets of people, having 
different ideas of the way to accomplish a thing, nothing is 
done; and that situation which exists so frequently regard- 
ing so many measures w411 exist forever, unless there is put 
behind the proposition a force that gives it a momentum to 
carry it over such obstacles. Put force enough behind it so 
that the gentlemen in the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives understand that they are going to be held responsible 
by the American people, going to be held responsible for not 
doing the thing, for not finding out some way to do it, and 
they will come to this sensible conclusion very shortly, 
and that is: 

" We will settle the controversy about the way it should 
be done by trying one thing first, and if that does not work, 
we will try the other." 

Another difficulty about this measure is that there is a 
difference in appreciation of its importance in different parts 
of the country. Down here on the seaboard I think most 
people do appreciate it. You appreciate it; all the people 
who are concerned, or wish to be concerned, in South Ameri- 
can trade, or the trade of the Orient, appreciate it; but you 



TRADE EXPANSION 287 

go back into the interior of the country, into the great agri- 
cultural states of the Northwest, and the farther Middle 
West, states along in the valley of the Mississippi and the 
Missouri, and the people there are thinking about other 
things, and they have a natural dislike for subsidies, and 
when told that a measure means giving somebody else 
something for nothing, they express and impress upon their 
representatives a great dislike for it. The way for us to get 
something done is not for us who are in favor of it to talk to 
each other about it. We can do that indefinitely without 
getting much farther. The way is to take steps to bring to 
the minds of the people of the valley of the Missouri and the 
Northwest, and those great agricultural states the impor- 
tance to them, as well as to us, of having our merchant marine 
restored. 

I noticed the other day that the people of San Fran- 
cisco were justifying their confidence in themselves by pro- 
curing all their business correspondents in the state of New 
York to write letters to me in favor of having the great 
" Exposition and Celebration of the Opening of the Canal 
in San Francisco "; and these letters came in by the thou- 
sand from my constituents. They became so tiresome that 
I came very near voting against the project as a measure of 
revenge; but it showed the San Francisco people understood 
where to go in order to preach their doctrine. They did not 
talk to each other on the Pacific coast about it. They came 
to New York and got their business correspondents interested 
in it, and got them to talk to their representatives about it. 
That is what you want to do in Kansas and Nebraska and 
Iowa and the Dakotas — you want, through all the relations 
that you have, and by every means in your power, to repre- . 
sent to the people of those great interior states, who have but 
little direct relation with the ocean commerce of the world, 
the real conditions under which we exist, and the importance 



288 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

to the whole country of doing something; and if they do 
come to appreciate the importance to the country of doing 
what you are talking about, then they will be for it, for they 
are sincere, patriotic Americans. 

There is but one thing more I want to say regarding the 
relations which underlie the success of such an enterprise as 
you are now engaged in. Of course, you have had a great 
amount of advice, and a great many speakers have told you 
a great many things you know, and I am going to put myself 
in line with the distinguished gentlemen who have preceded 
me by doing the same thing. At the basis of all intercourse, 
commercial as well as social, necessarily lies a genuine good 
understanding. That cannot be simulated; the pretense of it 
is in general, in the long run, futile. People trade with those 
with whom they have sjonpathy; they tend to trade with 
their friends. The basis of all permanent commercial inter- 
course is benefit to both parties — not that cut-throat rela- 
tion which may exist between enemies, where one is trying to 
do the other — and a relation founded upon mutual respect, 
good understanding, sjnnpathy, and friendship; and the way 
to reach the condition which is thus essential is by personal 
intercourse and acquaintance between the men of Anglo- 
Saxon or German or Norse, or whatever race they may be, 
peopling the United States, and the men of the Latin 
American race peopling the countries of the South. 

This is something, my friends, in which our people are very 
deficient. So long have we been separated from the other 
nations of the earth that one of our faults is a failure to 
appreciate the qualities of the people who are unlike us, I 
have often had occasion to quote something that Bret Harte 
said about the people of a frontier western camp, to whom 
came a stranger who was regarded by them as having " the 
defective moral quality of being a foreigner." Difference 
from us does not involve inferiority to us. It may involve 



TRADE EXPANSION 289 

our Inferiority to somebody else. The sooner our business 
men open their minds to the idea that the peoples of other 
countries, different races and speaking different languages 
and with different customs and laws, are quite our equals, 
worthy of our respect, worthy of our esteem, regard, and 
affection, the sooner we shall reach a basis on which we can 
advance our commerce all over the world. A little more 
modesty is a good thing for us occasionally; a little appre- 
ciation of the good quahties of others — and let me tell you 
that nowhere on earth are there more noble, admirable and 
lovable qualities to be found among men than you will find 
among the people of Latin America. 

Gentlemen, I hope for you the effectiveness of a great and 
permanent organization, and that you may advance the time 
when through more perfect knowledge, through broader 
sjTnpathies and a better understanding, ties of commerce 
may bind together all our countries, advance our wealth and 
prosperity and well-being with equal step as they advance 
the wealth and prosperity and well-being of all those with 
whom we deal, and increase the tie of that perfect under- 
standing of other peoples which is the condition of unbroken 
and permanent peace. 



WELCOME TO THE LATIN AMERICAN PUB- 
LICISTS TAKING PART IN THE SECOND 
PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS 

WASfflNGTON, DECEMBER 30, 1915 

Mr. Root's interest in and knowledge of the American republics is not of yester- 
day, nor does it date from his secretaryship of state. It antedated and has survived 
oflScial position. In 1893 it inspired his address of welcome to the oflBcers of the 
foreign and United States squadrons which escorted the Spanish caravels to New 
York. It colors with a touch of personal feeling his address on the Codification of 
International'Law, delivered before the joint sessions of the American Society and 
the American Institute of International Law, and is beautifully expressed in the 
following brief passage from his remarks at the dinner of the Carnegie Endowment 
for International Peace to the delegates of the Second Pan American Scientific 
Congress. 

Gentlemen of the Pan American Scientific Congress, and our guests : I can- 
not refrain, in opening the postprandial exercises of this evening, from express- 
ing the great satisfaction which I feel in taking part in the transformation of 
the serious and sometimes dry exercises of our meetings into this social func- 
tion. It is especially agreeable to me because I cherish such rich and precious 
memories of hospitality received from our South American guests. 

I have said many times to my own coimtrymen, without ever provoking 

resentment on their part, that I wish they could all learn a lesson in courtesy 

and the generosity of friendship from our brothers in South America. I should 

have felt that my own participation in this congress was imperfect and lacked 

an important element, if I could not have met you, my old friends of South 

America, in this gathering, which excludes the serious and the scientific, and 

seeks to cultivate and satisfy only the generous sentiments of friendship. 

Although his address on the Codification of International Law is contained in 

Mr. Root's Addresses on International Subjects, it reinforces the views expressed by 

him, as secretary of state, in the address before the Third International American 

Conference, and its concluding paragraphs are here reprinted, as a fitting close to 

the volume of addresses dealing with the relations of the United States to our sister 

republics of the South. 

THE presence here of Dr. Maurtua, whom it is a great 
pleasure for me to hail as a colleague in the Faculty 
of Political and Administrative Science of the University of 
San Marcos, at Lima, and of the distinguished Ambassador 
from Brazil, my old friend from Rio de Janeiro, lead me to 

201 



292 LATIN AMERICA AND THE UNITED STATES 

say something which follows naturally from my reflections 
regarding the interests of the smaller nations. It is now 
nearly ten years ago when your people, gentlemen, and the 
other peoples of South America, were good enough to give 
serious and respectful consideration to a message that it was 
my fortune to take from this great and powerful republic of 
North America to the other American nations. I wish to say 
to you, gentlemen, and to all my Latin American friends 
here in this congress, that everything that I said in behalf of 
the Government of the United States at Rio de Janeiro in 
1906 is true now as it was true then. There has been no 
departure from the standard of feeling and of policy which 
was declared then in behalf of the American people. On the 
contrary, there is throughout the people of this country a 
fuller realization of the duty and the morality and the high 
policy of that standard. 

Of course, in every country there are individuals who 
depart from the general opinion and general conviction, both 
in their views and in their conduct; but the great, the over- 
whelming body of the American people love liberty, not in 
the restricted sense of desiring it for themselves alone, but 
in the broader sense of desiring it for all mankind. The great 
body of the people of these LTnited States love justice, not 
merely as they demand it for themselves, but in being willing 
to render it to others. We believe in the independence and 
The dignity of nations, and while we are great, we estimate 
our greatness as one of the least of our possessions, and we 
hold the smallest state, be it upon an island of the Caribbean 
or anywhere in Central or South America, as our equal in 
dignity, in the right to respect and in the right to the treat- 
ment of an equal. We believe that nobility of spirit, that 
high ideals, that capacity for sacrifice are nobler than 
material wealth. We know that these can be found in the 
little state as well as in the big one. In our respect for you 



PAN AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS 293 

who are small, and for you who are great, there can be no 
element of condescension or patronage, for that would do 
violence to our own conception of the dignity of independent 
sovereignty. We desire no benefits which are not the 
benefits rendered by honorable equals to each other. ^ We 
seek no control that we are unwilling to concede to others, 
and so long as the spirit of American freedom shall continue, 
jt will range us side by side with you, great and small, in the 
maintenance of the rights of nations, the rights which exist 
as against us and as against all the rest of the world. 

With that spirit we hail your presence here to cooperate 
with those of us who are interested in the international law; 
we hail the formation of the new American Institute of Inter- 
national Law and the personal friendships that are being 
formed day by day between the men of the North and the 
men of the South, all to the end that we may unite in such 
clear and definite declaration of the principles of right con- 
duct among nations, and in such steadfast and honorable 
support of those principles as shall command the respect of 
mankind and insure their enforcement. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adams, John Qulncy, American presi- 
dent, xiii, 21, 76, 79, 90, 94, 251. 

Ahumada, Mexican governor, speech of, 
208 f . 

Alaska, 248. 

Alliances, traditional policy of the 
United States concerning, 86. 

Altruism, ideal of, 244. 

Amazon, river, 46. 

America, services of, to the world's civi- 
lization, 169 f. 

American colony, the, at Mexico city, 
177-181. 

American Institute of International Law, 
the, 291, 293. 

Andes, the, 27, 74, 101, 248. 

Apollonius Molon, Greek orator, anec- 
dote of, 188. 

Arbitration, international, 170; practical 
difficulties in, 142 f. 

Argentina, 73-102, 235-238, 248, 249, 
264, 272, 275. 

Arias, Ricardo, speech of, 145-148. 

Armenians, the, 26. 

Arthur, Chester Alan, American presi- 
dent, 252. 

Artigas, Jose, dictator of Uruguay (1811- 
1820), 64. 

Atheneiun, the, at Montevideo, Uruguay, 
65-71. 

Austria, 26, 257, 261. 

Bahia, Brazil, 48-54, 258. 

Bahia Blanca, 258. 

Banks, importance of, in securing South 
American trade, 255. 

Barbosa, Ruy, Brazilian senator, 32; 
speeches of, 19-28, 52 ff. 

Barrett, John, director of the Pan Amer- 
ican Union, 153, 232. 

Barrios, Senator, speech of, 130 f. 



BatUe y Ord6fiez, Jose, president of 
Uruguay, speech of, 60-63. 

Bayard, Thomas Francis, secretary of 
state, 21. 

Belgium, 248. 

Bismarck, Otto von, German statesman, 
261. 

Blaine, James Gillespie, American states- 
man, 5, 21, 42, 91, 232, 252 f. 

Blancos, Uruguayan faction, 64, 65. 

Blending of races, effect of, 238. 

Bolivar, Simon, Venezuelan general, 129, 
154. 

Bolivia, 75, 248, 249, 272. 

Borglmn, Gutzon, sculptor, 232. 

Brazil, 3-54, 166, 219, 239-244, 248, 249, 
257, 264, 265, 275, 277. 

Bristow, Joseph Little, United States 
senator, 260. 

Buchanan, William Insco, American 
diplomat, 147, 214. 

Buenos Ayres, xiii, 73-102, 257, 258, 273. 

Buffalo Exposition, the, 172 f. 

Bureau of American Republics, estab- 
lishment of the, 91. 

Byron, Lord, 236; characterization of 
Washington by, 134. 

Calero, Manuel, speech of, 168-174. 

Calhoun, John Caldwell, American 
statesman, 21, 251. 

Callao, 115, 258. 

Camargo, Theodomiro de, speech of, 35 f . 

Canada, 110 f., 257, 261, 265. 

Canning, George, English statesman, TS, 
79. 

Capital, opportunities for, in South 
America, 256 f . ; investment of Ameri- 
can capital in Mexico, 201. 

Caribbean Sea, the, 55, 159, 258, 272, 
273, 274, 292. 



297 



298 



INDEX 



Carlos, king of Portugal, 219. 
Carnegie, Andrew, contributes towards 

the construction of the Building of the 

Pan American Union, US. US, 231; 

letter of, 22C f.; letter of Mr. Root to, 

225 f.; resolutions concerning, 227. 
Carnegie Endowment for Iflternational 

Peace, the, 291. 
Cartagena, Colombia, 153 ff., 258. 
Casasus, Joaquin D., speech of, 184-188, 
Castlereagh, \'iscount, British premier, 

77, 78. 
Central America. 50, 117, 264, 266, 272, 

292. 
Central American Peace Conference, the, 

xiv, 213-218. 
Chamber of Commerce, the, of New 

York. 239-244. 
Chamber of Deputies, the, in Mexico, 

168-177. 
Charleston, the, 55, 166^ 
Chile, 103-112, 248, 249, 275. 
China, 36. 

Cicero, anecdote of, 188. 
Civilization, the process of, 233. 
Clay, Henry, American statesman, xiii, 

5, 21, 28, 75, 76, 90, 94, 251. 
Cleveland, Grover, American president, 

252. 
Coffee, importance of, to Brazil, 41. 
Colombia, 152-155, 160, 166, 248. 
Colorados, Uruguayan faction, 64, 65. 
Columbia School of Mines, the, 257. 
Columbus, Christopher, 57. 
Commerce and Labor, Department of, 

254. 
Commimication, importance of means 

of. 257-267. 
Consular service, the, 279 ff. 
Conti, sculptor, 232. 
Coquimbo, 258. 
Cornejo, Mariano, Peruvian envoy, 

speech of, 11 f. 
Corral, Ramon, Mexican vice-president, 

speeches of. 192 f., 203 f. 
Cortelyou. George Bruce, pwstmaster- 

general, 265. 



Cort^, Hem&n, Spanish soldier, 56. 

CosU Rica, 213. 

Credit system, the, in South America, 

255. 
Creel, Enrique C, Mexican diplomat, 

214. 
Cret, P^l Phillijrpe, architect, 231. 
Cuba, 35, 160, 275, i?76, 277. 
Cucllar, Samuel Garcia, Mexican officer, 

162. 

Dakotas, the, 287. 
Darcy, Dr. James, speech of, 16 f. 
Declaration of Independence, the, 170. 
Declaration of the rights of man, the, 

57. 64. 
Dehesa, Teodoro A., Mexican governor, 

speech of, 206. 
Demosthenes, 187. 
Diaz, Porfirio, Mexican president, 158, 

161, 167 f., 172, 181, 192, 194, 202, 

203, 206, 207, 210; speech of, 162 ff. 
Dickens, Charles, observations of, on 

America, 179. 
Drago, Luis M., speech of, xiii, 93-97. 
Drago doctrine, the, 95 f . 

Ecuador, 248. 

Elguera. Federico, speech of, 127 ff. 
El Senor Root en MSxico, 158. 
England, 64. 246. 247, 248. 257, 261. 
Europe, 4, 48, 51, 57, 59, 60, 61, 246, 251, 

256, 257, 258, 259, 270. 
Evarts, William Maxwell, secretary of 

state. 21. 
Everett, Edward, American statesman, 

21; note of, 121 f. 

Federalist, The, 21, 24. 

Figueroa, Alcorta, J., president of Argen- 
tina, speech of, 81-84. 

Florida, 75. 

Fodere, Pradier, Peruvian publicist, 1S5. 

Forsj'th, John, secretary of state, 21. 

France, 57, 64, 100, 190, 221, 247, 257. 
261, 262. 



INDEX 



299 



Franklin, Benjamin, American philoso- 
pher and statesman, 29. 

Free ships, policy of, 262. 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick Theodore, 
secretary of state, 252. 

Gama, Brazilian commercial teacher, 
speech of, 36 ff, 

Garnett, American congressman, 78. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, American 
abolitionist, 23. 

Germans, in Brazil, 249 f. 

Germany, 57, 100, 190, 247, 257, 261, 
262. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 178. 

Gongalvez, Sigismundo, governor of Per- 
nambuco, 47. 

Government, fimctions of, 132. 

Grant, Ulysses Simpson, American gen- 
eral and president, 198, 199. 

Great Britain, 57, 251, 257. 

Greece, 26. 

Grey, Lord, 110. 

Guadalajara, Mexico, 208 ff. 

Guatemala, 213, 272, 273. 

Guimaraes, Paula, Brazilian deputy, 
speech of, 30 f . 

Hague Conference, Second, in 1907, 3, 
171, 233. 

Hague Tribimal of Arbitration, the, 158. 

Hamilton, Alexander, American states- 
man, 21, 83. 

Harrison, Benjamin, American president, 
252. 

Harte, Francis Bret, American author, 
288. 

Hay, John, secretary of state, and author, 
21. 

Hicks, John, American diplomat, 108. 

Hidalgo y Costilla, Miguel, Mexican 
priest and revolutionist, 176, 206, 207. 

Holy Alliance, the, 77, 251. 

Honduras, 213. 

Huneeus, Antonio, Chilean minister, ad- 
dress of, 104-108. 

Hungary, 26, 



Iberian Peninsula, the, 51, 240. 

Ibsen, Henrik, Norwegian dramatic poet, 
16. 

Indians, 7, 47; passing of their civiliza- 
tion in Mexico, 209. 

International Bureau of the American 
Republics, the, 223. 

Iowa, 287. 

Isolation, disadvantages of, 233. 

Italy, 247, 257, 261, 262. 

Jalisco, Mexican state, 208. 

Japan, 26, 261. 

Jay, John, American statesman, 83. 

Jefferson, Thomas, American president, 

xiii, 5, 21, 23, 29, 79, 94, 251. 
Jews, the, 26, 48. 
Judrez, Benito, Mexican president, 176. 

Kansas, 287. 
Kansas City, 255, 270. 
Kelsey, Albert, architect, 231. 
Knox, Philander Chase, secretary of 
state, 232. 

Laboulaye, Edouard de, French his- 
torian, 134. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, French general 
and statesman, 28, 54, 237. 

Lancaster, house of, 64. 

Landa y Escandon, Guillermo de, speech 
of, 165 ff. 

Laredo, 210. 

Lima, 113-144, 257. 

Limantour, Jose, Mexican minister, 161; 
speech of, 195 ff. 

Lincoln, Abraham, American president, 
94, 174, 178, 198. 

Lobos Islands, controversy concerning, 
121 f., 126. 

London, 26, 76 f. 

Lota, 258. 

McKinley, William, American president, 

36, 246. 
Madison, James, American president, 21, 

23, 74, 79, §3, 9i 251. 



300 



mDEX 



Magoon, Charles E., provisional gover- 
nor of Cuba, 147 f. 
Mann, Horace, American educator, 101. 
Maritlino dc Souza, Jos6, governor of 

Baliia, sjH'ech of, 48 ff. 
Marcy, William Learned, American 

statesman, 21. 
Marshall, John, American jurist, xiii, 21, 

83. 
Martinez, Mucio P., governor of Puebla, 

speech of, 204 f . 
Massachusetts, 248. 
Massachusetts Bay, 51. 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

the, 257. 
Material benefits, importance of, 170. 
Maurtua, Peruvian savant, 291. 
Mediterranean, the, 26. 
Mendez, Luis, speech of, 181-184. 
Merchant Marine Commission, the, 2G6. 
Mexican Academy of Legislation and 

Jurisprudence, the, 181-191. 
Mexican Country Club, the, 177-181. 
Mexico, 50, 152-210, 215, 264, 265, 272, 

273. 
Missouri, 248. 

Mitre, Emilio, speech of, 73-81. 
Mob, rule of the, 141. 
Mogy-Guas6, the, river in Brazil, 41. 
Monroe, James, American president, xiii, 

5, 14, 21, 56. 58, 74, 78, 79 f., 84, 99, 

172, 251, 252. 
Monroe Doctrine, the, xiii, 50, 56, 58, 61, 

74, 79 f., 117, 172 f., 243. 
Montague, Andrew Jackson, American 

delegate, speech of, 13. 
Montenegro, Augusto, governor of Pari, 

speech of, 45 f . 
Montevideo, 55-71, 258. 
Muller, Lauro, Brazilian minister 239- 

244. 
Mukden, battle of, 171. 

Nabuco, Joaquim, the elder, 47. 

Nabuco, Joaquim, Brazilian ambassa- 
dor, 17, 47, 48, 219, 234; speech of, 
8-6. 



National Convention for the Extension 
of the Foreign Commerce of the United 
States, address of Mr. lloot at the, 
269-281. 

Nazareth de Arujo, Galaor, speech of, 36. 

Nebraska, 287. 

New Orleans, 264. 

New York, city, 26, 1 15, 166, 255, 258. 

New York, state, 287. 

Nicaragua, 213. 

Norcross, Orlando Wliitney, American 
builder and contractor, 232. 

North American Society of the River 
Plata, the, 87 f. 

Norway, 257, 261. 

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 161 f. 

Orient, the, 264, 270, 286. 

Orizaba, Mexico, 206 f. 

Oyapoc, river in South America, 27. 

Pacific railroads, the, 263. 
Palacio Monroe, xiii. 14. 
Panama, 145-151, 166. 
Panama, Isthmus of, 258, 264. 
Panama Canal, the. 111, 115, 149, 159, 

271, 275. 
Panama Railroad, the, 260. 
Panama Railroad Company, the, 258. 
Pan American Commercial Conference, 

address of Mr. Root at, 283-293. 
Pan American Conference, First, at 

Washington, xii, 225, 229, 252 f., 291. 
Pan American Conference, Second, at 

Mexico, xi, 225, 229, 253. 
Pan American Conference, Third, at Rio 

de Janeiro, xii, xiii, 3-14, 173, 224 f., 

229, 253. 
Pan American Railroad, the, 272 f. 
Pan American Scientific Congress, Sec- 
ond, address of Mr. Root at, 291 ff. 
Pan American Union, the, 91, 223-234. 
Par4, Brazil, 44, 45 f., 258. 
Paranahyba, the, river in Brazil, 41. 
Pardo, Manuel, Peruvian statesman, 

135. 



INDEX 



301 



Pardo y Barreda, Jos^, president of 

Peru, speech of, 1 13 f . 
Paulistas, 39, 40. 
Peaceable invasion, 189. 
Pemambuco, Brazil, 47 f., 54, 258. 
Peru, 11, 12, 113-144, SMS, 249, 257, 272, 

275. 
Philadelphia, 29. 
Pious Fund, the, 158. 
Piracy, 26. 
Pizarro, Francisco, Spanish soldier, 56, 

257. 
Plutarch, 188. 
Political science, chief contribution of 

the United States to, 141. 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 26. 
Portugal, 221. 
Prado y Ugarteche, Javier, speech of, 

116-123. 
Prussia, 100. 

Public opinion, rule of, 220 f. 
Puebla, Mexico, 204 f . 
Punta Arenas, 258. 
Purdie, Francis B., speech of, 86-89. 
Puritan element, the, in America, 56. 

Randolph, Edmund, American states- 
man, 21. 

Recife, see Pemambuco. 

Religious toleration, 170. 

Reyes, Rafael, Colombian president, 154, 
155. 

Rezende, Doctor, speech of, 41 f. 

Rhodes, 188. 

Ribeyro, Ram6n, speech of, 136. 

Riesco, Jermdn, president of Chile, 
speech of, 103. 

Rincon Gallardo, Pedro, Mexican officer, 
161; speech of, 161 f. 

Rio Branco, Baron do, Brazilian min- 
ister, 18; speeches of, 13, 14. 

Rio de Janeiro, xii, xiii, 3-35, 40, 55, 58, 
63, 66, 67, 68, 95, 107, 136, 257, 258. 

Rio de la Plata, 27, 5Q, 74. 

Rio Grande, the, 161, 196. 

Rivadivia, Bernardino, Argentine states- 
man, 78, 



Rochambeau, Comte de, French general, 
237. 

Romeu, Jose, Uruguayan minister, 
speech of, 55-58. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, American presi- 
dent, 5, 13, 14, 28, 30, 58, 65, 84, 97, 
108, 114, 115, 117, 135, 158, 163, 164, 
166, 171, 172 f., 185, 193, 198, 205, 
206, 208, 257. 

Roses, Wars of the, 64. 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Swiss-French 
philosopher, 236. 

Rush, Richard, American diplomat, xiii, 
76 f., 84, 251. 

Russia, 26. 

St. Louis, Missouri, 13, 255. 

Salisbury, Marquis of, 142. 

Salvador, 213. 

San Antonio, Texas, 158, 159 S. 

San Francisco, 106, 287. 

San Marcos, University of, 133-144, 291. 

San Martin, Jose de, Argentine general, 
101. 

San Martin, Zorrilla de, speech of, 65-69. 

Santiago, Chile, 103-112. 

Santo Domingo, imhappy condition of, 
160, 275 fif. 

Santos, Brazil, 41-45, 258. 

Sao Paulo, Brazil, 35-40, 54. 

Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino, Argen- 
tine president, 100 f. 

Scandinavia, 16. 

Schurz, Carl, American statesman, 171. 

Sentiment, power of, 70. 

Seward, William Hem-y, American 
statesman, 5, 21, 164, 198, 199. 

Smith, William, botanist, 232. 

Solfs, Juan Diaz de, Spanish navigator, 
56. 

South America, Mr. Root's visit to. in 
1906, xi-xiv, 3-155; Mr. Roots ad- 
dresses in the United States on topics 
relating to South America, 235-293. 

Spain, 26, 57, 75, 77, 235, 247, 257, 
261. 

Steamships, cost of operating, 260. 



302 



INDEX 



Subsidies, maritime. 2G1-2G7. 274, 285 ff. 
Sweden, 221. 

Taft, William Howard, American presi- 
dent, 148, 232. 

Taney, Roger Brooke, American jurist, 
83. 

Tariff, protective, 274; maximum and 
minimum, 277 ff . ; discriminating 
tariff duties, 262 f. 

Texas, 161. 

Thompson, David E., American diplo- 
mat, 192-197. 

Tiete, the, river in Brazil, 41. 

Tocopilla, 258. 

Trade expansion, individual effort in, 
283-293. 

Trade routes, importance of. 111, 115, 
149. 

Trans-Mississippi Conmiercial Congress, 
address of Mi. Root before, 245-267. 

Tucuman, Congress of, 75. 

Tuileries, burning of the, 64. 

Turkey, 26. 



Uruguay. 65-71, 249, 264. 
Uruguay, river, 46. 

Vjilparaiso, 103, 112. 258. 
Vdsquez-Cobo, Colombian minister, ad- 
dress of, 153 f. 
Venezuela, 74. 

Vera Cruz, Mexican state, 206 f. 
Villarfin, Luis F., speech of, 133 ff. 

Washington, city, 273. 

W'ashington, George, American presi- 
dent, xiii, 21, 23, 28. 83, 94, 101, 129. 
134, 198, 206, 207, 233 f., 237. 

Webster, Daniel, American statesman, 
5, 21. 

West Indian countries, difficulties of, 
274-277. 

White, Andrew Dickson, American dip- 
lomat, 284, 285. 

Wirt, William, American statesman, 251. 

Wotton, Sir Henry, statement of, 245. 

Yale University, 182, 187. 
York, house of, 64. 



PRINTED AT THE HABVABD UNIVE»3ITY PRESS, C.^MBHIDQE, MASS., U.S.A. 



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